Dawn's Sage
by Panory Bro
Summary: The toads raise Naruto to replace Minato as their summoner. Trained as a sage, Naruto will strike out to find his fellow jinchuriki. Just not in the way you would expect.
1. Chapter 1

Dawn's Sage

Prologue

Minato was not having a good day. Sure it started out fine, just like any other. Then Kushina had gone into labor, and October tenth had gone from decent to wonderful. He was a father to a beautiful boy named Naruto. Then some masked man claiming to be Madara Uchiha had not only found out about the ANBU guarded cave where his son was born, but had gotten past the guards, killed Sarutobi's wife, kidnapped his son, taken Kushina when Minato went to save Naruto, released the Nine Tails in the middle of the village, and just when Minato had him, he escaped anyway. If Minato lived through today, a feat getting less and less likely, he would despise October the tenth.

However, Minato had to prioritize. And right now the biggest priority was dealing with the Nine Tails. The beast had so many legends spread about it and its fearsome power, and lived up to every single one. Killing this kind of beast was beyond even the First Hokage, and was definitely beyond his own skills. But while Minato might not have the Tailed Beast suppressing Wood Style, he did have something the First didn't. Sealing. All he had to do was keep the Nine Tails occupied long enough to finish the job. Minato glanced at the raging tails and gave up any hope of holding the thing down himself. Minato bit his thumb and ran through the hand signs. He jumped above the Nine Tails and slammed his palm down. And in a puff of smoke the great beast was gone.

"_Not quite gone yet_," Minato reminded himself. Using the Flying Thunder God on two targets of such size was straining even for him. And he still had to get Kushina and… the container for the Nine Tails. "Gamabunta! I need you to hold this thing down while I prepare… the seal!"

"No promises, I might finish him off before you get back!" said the large chief of the Toads. As it turned out, the new chief still had some growing to do mentally. In the scarce minute that Minato was gone the Nine Tails had managed to slice his stomach despite the toad playing a careful defense. Any wounds inflicted by the toad's blade seemed to disappear within seconds. Gamabunta stuck to firing off Water Bullets from a distance after almost having his gut spilled over the forest.

Minato returned, now with a small child and his dying wife. Minato summoned a sealing altar on top of Gamabunta's head and put the child down on the platform to begin the sealing. Any other day, Gamabunta would have been angry at being treated like a glorified table, but today he realized it was something he had to overlook.

Gamabunta wasn't the only one to notice the presence of a sealing altar and a jinchuriki-to-be. The Nine Tails roared in anger before sprinting at Gamabunta to try and interrupt the sealing. Minato shouted something as well, and though it was drowned out by the Nine Tails' fury, Gamabunta could guess what it was he had to do. Just as the Nine Tails neared him, the toad leapt into the air and stabbed the Nine Tails' reaching paw into the ground with his sword. Minato finished whatever he had been doing on top of the toad's head, and a pressing feeling of death overtook the area. The Nine Tails roared again, not in rage this time, but something more akin to fear or annoyance.

Then the beast shrunk. Gamabunta couldn't find any other way to explain it. The Nine Tails went from a healthy looking, if enormous and nine-tailed, fox to a scrawny, laughable facsimile of the terrifying beast it was. But the Nine Tails was anything but weak, even in its diluted state. Gamabunta's eyes widened as the Nine Tails lunged forward with its claws, threatening to impale what Gamabunta presumed was the new jinchuriki on top of his head. Gamabunta tried to dodge the attack, but it had come from such a close range he had no real chance of dodging it completely. Still Gamabunta though he had evaded it as the claw passed over his eye by several feet, not much in relation to the two beasts fighting. As it was, the toad ended up with a wound over his left eye, the Nine Tails' corrosive chakra leaving a massive scar. He had blinked on reflex, the only thing preventing him from losing his eye entirely.

The feeling of death came on seemingly twice as strong as before, and the Nine Tails roared in absolute fury at being entirely sealed into a newborn baby. Gamabunta looked down as he saw Minato Namikaze, the Yellow Flash, the Fourth Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, fall to the forest floor alongside his wife, Kushina Uzumaki. His summoner dead, Gamabunta returned to Mount Myobokuzan, his last image that of the Third Hokage catching their bodies.

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Gamabunta returned to the sound of toads all around and a cacophony of questions.

"QUIET!" yelled Gamabunta, "ONE AT A TIME!"

The crowd parted to allow two toads through, one green and one purple, both only as big as Gamabunta's eye. These were Fukasaku and Shima, the Elder Toad Sages of Mount Myubokuzan. Of course the young hotshot of a chief liked to remind them mostly of the Elder part of their title. "Little Minato's name is no longer on the wall of summoners. As the last toad summoned, do you know anything we don't?" asked Fukasaku, the little green toad.

"Aye, he died defeating the Nine Tails. I don't know the circumstances around the fight, but if Minato hadn't of sealed the thing when he did, I might not be here." said Gamabunta.

"That's Minato for you. Even when he's facing the Nine Tails, he still manages to win. He was a good summoner." murmured Shima.

"By the way boy, I can see the scar on your eye and your gut coming from the Nine Tails' claws, but what on earth caused that thing on your head?" asked Fukasaku.

"What?!" exclaimed Gamabunta as he reached up on his head in a panic. His hands settled on a lump in the middle of his head that hadn't been there before. As soon as he covered the bump, it began to cry.

"Oi! Be quiet up there!" the toad chief yelled. This of course did nothing but make the lump cry all the louder.

Shima jumped up on the chief's head to see what was up on his head, as it was now clearly not a battle wound. Upon reaching the crying mass, she discovered it to be a child, not even a day old yet, with blond hair and three marks down the sides of his cheeks. Looking at the sealing altar he was placed upon, Shima shouted down to Gamabunta, "It looks like the new jinchuriki tagged along for the ride back. We can't get him back to the Hidden Leaf now that Minato's dead. We could send a message to Jiraiya. Then again I don't want to be trusting him with a baby."

"You two are plenty old enough to have raised a lot of tadpoles in your time. What's one more for a short time?" asked Gamabunta mockingly.

"That might not be the worst idea you've had boy. I guess we can care for the little tadpole for a while. After all, he looks enough like him to be Minato's son. We could use a new summoner. Then again, we might be too old for the job… Why don't you take the crying, pooping, crying, eating, crying little tyke, eh?" said Fukasaku as Shima joined him on the ground, now carrying the baby.

"Oh no, that's quite, uh, generous, but, you know, I have a young one of my own all the way and, umm, you two would be a much better influence on him! I couldn't deprive you of such joy when I already have my own." stammered Gamabunta as he quietly regretted his choice to mock his elders' age.

"So boy, does the tyke have a name?" asked Shima.

"I… don't know."

A light green toad about the size of a horse with a ridiculous bow and makeup hopped forward and spoke up in an equally ridiculously high voice. "I remember Jiraiya honey mentioning how Minato's son was going to be named after the main character of his first book. So his name is probably Naruto. Could I get a closer look at little Naruto? He is so cute I could simply-"

"Thank you for your help Gamariki, I think we should get Naruto here settled if he's to be staying for any length of time." interrupted Fukasaku.

"Well you don't have to be so rude about it." replied Gamriki as his voice dropped several octaves.

With that the toads all went their separate ways to both mourn Minato's death and rejoice in having found a new prospective summoner so soon. Gamabunta went to lick his wound (figuratively) by soaking in one of Mount Myobokuzan's oil springs. Fukasaku and Shima carried the now identified Naruto to their house to get a room ready for him, and hopefully stop his incessant crying. Fukasaku hoped that Naruto would be an acceptable replacement for Minato as a summoner. Little did he know that Naruto would smash his expectations into a thousand pieces.

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**A/N: Prologue of my first fic is now a real thing. Wooo! This might seem a bit like Konoha's Young Sage, but that's just the prologue I swear! I've read most of the decent Naruto fanfics, and some of the bad ones, and I have yet to find one like what I have planned for this. At least nothing as (hopefully) well written and (hopefully) realistic in its execution. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

Dawn's Sage

Chapter 2

"Naruto!"

"Coming!" replied the four year old boy. Naruto had deep blue eyes, and shockingly yellow hair. He stood at a little less than four feet, but that was still plenty tall enough to tower over the small green toad that had called him over.

"Naruto," began Fukasaku, "these past years Shima and I have raised you as one f our own tadpoles. Do you know why?"

"Because it's up to me to be the next toad summoner. I know this Pa!" said Naruto.

"Aye aye. But do you know what you have to do to become the toad summoner?" countered Fukasaku.

"Well… I guess I'd summon toads… and maybe be summoned by toads?" ventured Naruto.

"Being the toad summoner does entail both those things, yes. But you'd also need to train in order to utilize your chakra. Now before you ask," said Fukasaku, cutting off Naruto's budding question, "chakra is an energy used to do a lot of things, like summon toads. It's produced by you, me, Ma, and everything else in the world. Since you hold it in your body, you can only have so much of it at a time, and if you run out, you die. One thing I'll be teaching you is how to use the chakra other things make, so you don't run out as easily. It'll be hard, but if you're not up for it I could always take you to the Hidden Leaf Village…"

"No way Pa! If I can be even a bit as cool as old 'Bunta, I'll work super duper hard!" said Naruto excitedly.

"All right then. I figured you say that. We'll start with some meditation." said Fukasaku, pulling out a small stick from his cloak. "Try not to move."

"I think I've got it Pa, erm, Fukasaku sensei." said Naruto as excitedly as one can while not moving at all. He winced and reached up to rub the back of his head after the stick came down for referring to his sensei as 'Pa'. This training was going to be a pain.

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"I'm impressed. Getting a grasp on Sage Mode at such a young age is a feat to be sure. Meeting a young 'un who can stay still at all is rare enough, but sensing and then absorbing natural chakra is near impossible. You shouldn't have the reserves to do anything of the sort." said Fukasaku, bringing his stick back into his cloak.

"Well I am quite impressive. The one who does impossible things, I like the sound of that. I dare say I might even be better than you were back in the day. When was that day, a hundred years ago?" said the six year old, soaking up the praise like a sponge.

"II take it back. You aren't quite mature or wise enough to be called a 'Sage' yet. More like a 'Junior Sage'." quipped Fukasaku.

"Hey, I'm plenty wise enough to be a sage. Besides, I've mastered Sage Mode, so there's no way I can't be a Sage." said Naruto, confident in his logic.

"Oh ho ho, mastered, eh? I'd say you have a ways to go before you've 'mastered' Sage Mode. What kind of enemy would let his opponent sit there and charge up energy for ten minutes? As it is now, your Sage Mode is useless in combat." said Fukasaku.

"Well what else can I do, huh? You said it yourself, 'One MUST be ABSOLUTELY still when gathering Natural chakra, or risk losing control and joining these poor fools who tried and failed.'" said Naruto, gesturing to the surrounding statues of toads in meditative poses, those who had failed their Sage Mode training and paid the price.

"Yes, one must be still when gathering natural chakra, but not when using it. And it's child's play for one sage to give natural chakra to another sage. Using a technique I developed for just such a use, the Sage Art: Amphibian Technique, Shima and I can fuse with you. We gather the natural chakra while you do the fighting in Sage Mode. Pretty useful, huh?" said Fukasaku, obviously pleased with himself for creating such an amazing technique. Meanwhile Naruto was imagining what a fusion of himself and Fukasaku would look like, his mind conjuring monstrosity after monstrosity for to be horrified by. Seeing the look on his face, Fukasaku quickly explained. "It's not an equal fusion. It mostly looks like we're just sitting on your shoulders."

Naruto let out the breath he had been holding in relief. Fukasaku quickly jumped on his shoulder and began the technique. It didn't last long as the small toad was violently ejected from his perch. Fukasaku picked himself up and began thinking as to why his wonderful technique had failed so catastrophically. He came up with nothing and decided to try again, brushing off Naruto's concern for his wellbeing. Upon attempting the Amphibian Technique again, the jutsu seemed to work as intended for an instant.

**I refuse to share this cage with some pathetic little ****_frog._**** OUT!**

And the instant was gone, as Fukasaku was launched across the clearing once again. This time however, he had a much clearer idea of what had gone wrong.

"Pa! Are you okay?" asked Naruto in concern.

"Yes. Yes, I'm fine. Tell me Naruto, what do you know about the Nine Tails?" said Fukasaku, brushing himself off.

"Isn't that the story you used to tell me when I was a baby about the last Toad Summoner?" asked Naruto, wondering why Fukasaku was bringing up a fairy tale from before Naruto could remember.

"I'm afraid it's much more than a fairy tale. Minato died fighting the beast, but you can't kill a tailed beast. He was forced to seal it. But that kind of power can't be sealed into just anything. It had to have an active chakra system. And to top it off, he had to seal it into someone whose chakra system hadn't fully developed so that they could assimilate both the Nine Tails and the seal. He sealed the Nine Tails into you." said Fukasaku, "It's the Nine Tails that's rejecting the Amphibian Technique. I'm afraid that you won't be able to use Sage Mode. I realize this must be a lot to take in, but the toads and I think nothing less of you. This is-"

"Stop." interrupted Naruto, his hair shadowing his eyes. "This fox is nothing!" shouted Naruto, his eyes full of determination. "I won't let this stupid fox dictate what I can and can't do. If I can't fuse with you to use Sage Mode, then I'll just learn to use Sage Mode while moving!"

"What?! That's impossible! Gathering natural chakra, whose entire purpose is to be gathered while still, while moving is impossible! It can't be done!" said Fukasaku in disbelief.

"Before you, Sage Mode was next to useless. You invented the Amphibian Technique, I'll invent something to gather natural chakra while moving." said Naruto determinedly.

Fukasaku's eyes widened before he smiled a devious smirk. "All right. If anyone can do it, it's you. But I don't want you trying this without me nearby to knock the natural chakra outta you."

"Let's do this!" yelled Naruto.

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"Are you sure about this Naruto? You just recently learned to use Sage Mode efficiently." said Shima worriedly.

"Ma, please. I may have just finished, but I'm better at Sage Mode than either of you. I can't learn any more here. I want to see the world and find others like me." said Naruto. Six years had passed since he had first learned to absorb natural chakra and enter Sage Mode. The twelve year old still had his bright yellow hair, but now his eyes were a golden yellow with bar-like pupils and natural chakra showing itself as orange markings around his eyes.

"The boy's right Ma. He's surpassed both of us at the technique, but he's still too inexperienced to be a true 'Sage'. Real world experience is the only way to fix that." Fukasaku agreed.

"Well I suppose as long as he summons us whenever he gets in over his head." consented Shima. "Take this before you go though. It's reserved for sages of Mount Myobokuzan. Pa doesn't agree that you've reached that mark, but I do. Besides, it might get cold wherever you're going."

Naruto took the red cloak with black flames on the bottom reverently and put it on. Shima hadn't lied. The cloak was exceptionally cozy and warm. Naruto quickly said his goodbyes and left Mount Myobokuzan before his tears could catch up to him. Naruto swore then that he would not return to Mount Myobokuzan until he had become a true 'Sage'. If only he knew what that would entail.

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Naruto felt that Shima and Fukasaku had raised him well, and they had. Not only had they taught him right from wrong, they had also taught him more practical things, like numbers and language, manners and etiquette. Naruto had very strict criteria for anything he decided to do. First and foremost, the action in question needed to pose no potential threat to his precious people, currently limited to the toads of Mount Myobokuzan. Secondly, it had to not reveal his status as a jinchuriki. According to Fukasaku and Shima, jinchuriki were often mistreated and targeted for the beasts they contained. Unfortunately, having only these criteria to judge potential actions by gave him a lot of options, not all of them 'good'. Which is how he found himself working for a terrorist organization as a ninja for hire. It wasn't all bad; Tasogare, the organization employing him, had goals which might have been construed as noble, and the pay was definitely good. The idea of 'liberating' the Land of Woods wasn't something Naruto had a vested interest in, but it wasn't anything too nefarious. Mostly it consisted of Naruto protecting the real rebels from skilled ninja called 'Roots' while Tasogare destroyed Root bases with massive amounts of explosive notes. Naruto had to admit that the Root ANBU were skilled, but he wasn't a sage for nothing. He didn't summon the toads during his skirmishes with Root forces to keep from being mistaken for Jiraiya of the Sannin, the only other Toad Summoner. Naruto would keep his anonymity a bit longer.

Tasogare had contacted him after one of his less appealing missions. He had built up as much of a reputation as someone who doesn't want to be noticed can. He had yet to be listed in any Bingo books, but his reputation ensured that he never wanted for ryō. He had yet to encounter another jinchuriki like himself, but if Fukasaku was telling the truth, Hidden Villages were rather secretive about their jinchuriki.

Naruto was broken out of his memories by the call of one of the samurai that Tasogare was composed of. "Hey, Naruto. Zaji wanted to see you when you get the chance." said one of the approaching rebels.

"Thanks Ao, I'll go see what he wanted." replied Naruto, looking up from his meal. He stood up and began walking away to find the leader of Tasogare. He turned his head back around to face his meal when he was several feet away. Suddenly his tongue shot out of his mouth like a bullet from a gun, and stuck to the last bit of bacon he had been eating. His tongue then shot back into his mouth just as quickly as it had come out, taking the piece of bacon with it. Petra jumped back in shock as the slimy appendage flashed past her face. Naruto jogged off to find Zaji. He found the commander of Tasogare where one might expect, at the map table in the war tent.

"Petra said you wanted to see me. Is it a new job?" asked Naruto, cutting straight to the chase. He liked the whole 'saving a country' thing, but he was in this for the pay at the end of the day.

"Yes, one last job. We are this close," Zaji said, holding up two fingers not even an inch apart to signify just _how_ close they were, "to ejecting Danzo's accursed Root ANBU from the Land of Woods, thanks in no small part to you. But their last base is heavily defended. Too heavily defended for any of my men, and probably even you. That's why I've hired some outside help for this one. She came highly recommended as a demolitions expert from a good friend. She should be joining us shortly."

Naruto spun around as he sensed something strange. Because Naruto was constantly drawing natural chakra from the environment, he could sense perfectly the location of anything he was taking the chakra of within the considerable range Sage Mode had. The chakra he had sensed now was unlike anything he had ever felt. It was clearly human in nature, but was shaped vaguely like a bird. A very large bird. That said, the chakra was incredibly unstable. Naruto theorized that the new arrival was riding on top of the bird, which was probably a summon, or some similar creature. The unstable chakra could very well be how this demolitions expert… well, demolished. Zaji followed Naruto's gaze to see an empty sky. Several minutes passed before a large hawk appeared and continued to grow as it approached them, startlingly white against the blue sky.

As the bird drew closer, Naruto noticed the person riding atop the bird, a girl not much older than himself with hair almost as bright a shade of yellow as his. Her hair went halfway down her back and had one large bang covered the left side of her face. She wore a mesh undershirt and a green battle kimono with white trim. As she drew within earshot the demolitions expert announce her presence.

"I'm here for the job with the Tasogare, yeah. Are you Zaji?" she said.

"Indeed I am. Are you the Deidara that my friend recommended?" responded Zaji.

"Of course I am, yeah. So you decided to buy some of my art to cause some havoc? Smart move yeah." the newly introduced Deidara said.

"Art?" asked Naruto, deciding to make his presence known.

"That's what my ninjutsu is, a noble and refined art." said Deidara holding up a small clay spider and her hand, which oddly enough had a mouth embedded in it, teeth, tongue, and all. "Look. Such refined lines, and a form that pursues two-dimensional deform. _This _is art! But that's not all there is to my art! My creations flow, yeah! Like this, it's simply molded clay. But my art _explodes_! And when it explodes it becomes sublime, and for the first time, the essence of my creation appears, yeah! That instant of sublimation is when _true_ art can really exist! True art, is an EXPLOSION, yeah!"

…

"Wow." said Naruto, unsure of what to say after Deidara's long winded speech on art, which apparently explodes. Having never really covered art in Fukasaku's lectures, Naruto's first exposure to art were small clay figures that exploded. Which was not exactly the socially accepted standard of the practice.

"A much as I love explaining art to the uneducated, we should probably have this schmuck leave so you can tell me what needs artistic renovation." said Deidara, gesturing to Naruto as the uneducated in the room. Naruto narrowed his golden eyes in annoyance, but otherwise remained silent, content with letting Zaji explain the situation.

"Actually, Naruto here will be working with you. Your job will to be destroying the physical structure of this base." the leader of Tasogare said, pointing to the last Root base on the map table. "Naruto here will be in charge of the personnel in the base. Can you two handle it?"

"I don't know about this guy, so don't come crying to me if he ends up as an artistic smear on the ground." said Deidara offhandedly.

Naruto glared over at her. "If you can so much as scratch me with your 'art', I'll give you my entire paycheck for this job." The two blondes slammed their foreheads together, glaring lighting over the short distance.

"I'll take that as a yes." said Zaji good naturedly. "I'll leave you to it. Remember though, if the job isn't finished, you won't get paid."

"Yeah yeah, no problem." said Naruto before he hopped into the trees, Deidara close behind on a clay bird.

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Torune would be frustrated, if Lord Danzo's harsh training hadn't removed all emotion from him. He had been sent to this backwoods country to quell a rebellion that only should have taken twenty Root ANBU to stop. This Tasogare didn't even have a single ninja among them. Torune and Fu had personally made sure that the Land of Wood's ninja clans were wiped out. No, Lord Danzo's elite Root ninja were fighting samurai… and losing. While they didn't have a single ninja, ryō was no object to the surprisingly well funded rebellion. Torune couldn't even be angry t the missing ninja that the Land of Woods had hired, both because he literally _couldn't_ and because even missing ninja had to earn money. This of course did not translate to mercy when in combat. The mission comes first after all. And it was because of those same missing ninja that Torune had been assigned to this pathetic little assignment in the middle of nowhere, when he would be of more use serving Lord Danzo back in the Hidden Leaf. Torune had tried to muster the forces an just end this charade already so he could return to Lord Danzo's side, but Tasogare had apparently hired some rather competent ninja.

Torune was just thinking over how he would lure them out when the ceiling shook. Realizing that this either meant an enemy attack or an earthquake, Torune was forced to make a quick decision. If it was an enemy attack, they would want to stick to the base, but remaining underground during an earthquake would kill them all as surely as an army of enemy ninja. Deciding that the rebels couldn't have the kind of firepower required to make him feel the shock several dozen feet below the earth, Torune quickly order his fellow Root members out of the subterranean base. As Torune arrived at the entrance to the commandeered base, he noticed that the others had yet to exit the doors.

"What seems to be the issue?" asked Torune in his typical monotone.

"Sir, one of the sensors detected several large chakra sources outside. We determined that they are the source of the tremors. Awaiting further orders." informed one of the more experienced Root members on the squad in a tone of voice indistinguishable from Torune's.

Just as Torune about to order the squads back to defensive positions to repel the enemies, the doors crashed inwards and crushed several less alert Root members. Torune was down to only himself and seven other Root. Although, Torune couldn't blame the two dead Root members for being crushed by the large metal doors. The doors had been reinforced by a Dual Iron Bar Seal, anyone capable of destroying them, even with repeated barrage was a not force to trifled with. Before the dust could clear, what appeared to be a long tongue shot out of the cloud of debris and hit one of his remaining Root in the chest. The tongue immediately retreated back into the dust cloud.

"_Make that six Root ANBU left._" thought Torune as despondently as someone without emotions can. The almost sad feeling changed to not quite surprise when the Root member dragged into the dust came flying out a moment later at phenomenal speeds, leaving a massive crater in the wall he was embedded in. Torune reassured himself with the thought that no matter how strong the individual was, one touch would be enough to end him. As Torune shed his gloves and shirt, his skin took on a vibrant shade of purple, not exactly as stealthy as one would like for a profession based on sneaking around. Of course, that didn't matter since if Torune had taken off his shirt and gloves, he wasn't trying to be stealthy. The time had come to die for the mission if needed.

"Wow, only ten enemies! When Zaji said that this base was well defended, I thought he was serious." said their mystery attacker as he stepped out of the settling dust cloud. "I don't even need Deidara's help on this."

Torune took in the attacker. His blonde hair stood out in stark contrast to the Root ANBU's standard crème colored cloaks and blank white masks. His red cloak with black flames licking at the bottom certainly would have impressed on most people how cool this individual was, but none of the Root ANBU were impressed. But the strangest thing about him was his eyes. They were a dull gold, with bar like pupils and his eyes were surrounded by what appeared to be orange eye shadow. Perhaps some kind of bloodline? Regardless, he would be colored purple by the end of this.

That was when his accomplice arrived. Another blonde with equally bright hair, her eyes were blue, or at least the one Torune could see was. The large owl she was on however, was white. What nearly irritated him was the fact that Tasogare had sent two children, no older than thirteen to face down experience Root ANBU. Based on the insults flying between the two of them, they weren't even a cohesive team. He took the time given to him by the two allies arguing to send a nonverbal plan to his teammates with the Root ANBU hand sign code. This was exactly why he didn't understand how emotions could ever be an asset on the battle field. By arguing, they had given their enemies enough time to plot against them. Root ANBU never disobeyed an order, even when it involved attacking an unknown opponent to discern their strength. Which is what one of them did; swinging his tanto at the first blonde's exposed back while another ran at the female. The two of them stopped bickering to throw up their right hands. That's when Torune knew Root would be walking away from this fight in pain, if at all.

The Root ANBU behind the female exploded. One of the remaining Root members signaled his observations from his better viewpoint. He had seen a small white blur jump from the girl's hand. That had most likely been some sort of explosive that had killed Root member number four. In contrast, no one had an explanation for what had killed Root member number five. He had been several feet away from the red clad blonde's fist, but had gone flying back as if Tsunade herself had punched him in the face. Torune decided to take the male blonde, and signaled the other four Root ANBU to take out the female.

Torune ran at his opponent as the other Root members moved at the same time. The white owl that the female was standing on flapped its wings and took to the sky, exiting the base as the Root members followed. The first blonde made the mistake of looking at his comrade leaving, taking his eyes off of Torune in the process. "_The last mistake he'll ever make." _thought Torune as he went to punch his opponent in across the exposed skin of the face. Instead of the fist making contact, the blonde reached up and caught the punch in a palm that didn't give an inch. What startled Torune was the fact that his opponent hadn't looked in his direction at all.

"I'm kind of insulted that I was only deemed worthy of one opponent." said the red clad child "I mean it's not like I haven't- What!"

Torune grinned as he saw that his opponent wasn't wearing gloves. Even among the Aburame, Torune had been unique. He commanded a swarm of microscopic insects that inhabited his body. Through physical contact, he could 'infect' his opponents with these insects, which were poisonous to everyone but himself. The insects would feed off the chakra of their opponents like regular parasitic insects, but the poison killed them far faster than chakra exhaustion. The poison would take longer to spread if it started in the hand, and the limb could be amputated to remove the poison but Torune had more or less won. Still, one didn't become one of Lord Danzo's most trusted by taking risks and assuming things. Torune swept out his tanto for a quick slice to the neck for the kill.

His tanto made clean contact, but somehow failed to penetrate the skin. Not only that, the tanto shattered as if it were made of glass. Torune jumped back as his opponent went to punch him in the stomach. Rather than follow through, the blonde was staring at his left hand in what Torune imagined horror would look like as it slowly turned purple. He had won. Then the strangest thing began to happen. The purple skin began to turn stone gray from the original point of contact and quickly spread, overtaking the microscopic insects. The poison had only spread halfway up the forearm before it stopped entirely. The blonde angrily wrung his gray hand with his right hand, breaking a thin layer of actual stone that had formed over his left hand and forearm.

"Don't you know? Natural chakra is dangerous." said the blonde as he rushed through seals faster than anyone his age had any right to. He raised the final ram sign to his mouth and spewed forth a mass of yellow liquid. Torune jumped over the stream of the most peculiar Water Style he had ever seen, when he smelled it. This stream wasn't yellow water, but oil. The blonde seemed to know this as well, as he tossed an explosive note into the stream. It was quickly absorbed into the stream, and the moment the child stopped spitting the oil, it exploded. Luckily, Torune had managed to use some ninja wire from his front pouches to get away from the explosion, but the explosion was enormous, and engulfed the room. The inferno caught up to Torune quickly. He fell to the ground wreathed in flames before performing the Replacement Technique to switch with a log.

Any normal ninja would try all the harder to overcome this foe, but ninja trained as Root ANBU weren't governed by their emotions. Torune knew when to cut his losses and inform Lord Danzo of his discoveries. Torune performed the Body Flicker Technique to put as much distance between himself and the much stronger rogue ninja that had attacked the base and, presumably, killed the other nine Root members. He had put enough distance between himself and the base that he felt safe tree jumping instead of using the Body Flicker. He was glad, the Body Flicker was known to aggravate injuries received, and he had suffered painful burns across his body.

As he jumped from tree to tree, he noticed a large, white spider on one of the tree limbs he jumped past. Almost as if it responded to him noticing it, the spider jumped from its perch and latched onto his face. Right before the spider exploded, Torune heard the last words he would hear. "With this, become art! Katsu!"

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Deidara supposed her temporary partner wasn't completely useless. Sure he knocked down the doors to the enemy base, thereby alerting everyone in said base to their presence, but he had also led her to the last of the Root guys. Plus, if the burns all over the last guy's body were anything to go by, Naruto wasn't as hopeless as she had initially though when it came to art. Right now they were flying back to the Tasogare HQ to receive their rewards on her replacement mount, a large, clay hawk. Her owl had served her well, but it had finally achieved its artful purpose when it exploded in the faces of her enemies.

As they drew closer, Naruto's eye snapped open in alarm. Deidara had noticed that at the very least, he was a reliable sensor with a massive range, so when he told he to hurry to the Tasogare base, she did. Upon arriving at the base, the two young blondes found the base in ruins, tents aflame and corpses littering the ground. While the two didn't care too much for the rebels, their payment was another matter entirely. They landed to see if anything was left for them to take as collateral from their late employer. Standing in the middle of what used to be the main gathering place was one person. He stood tall and regal, as if the grime of the battle field wouldn't dare touch him. His orange hair blew slightly in the wind, but the piercings across his face distracted from even the strange hair color. The other striking thing about him was the cloak her wore. It went from a high collar down to his ankles, colored black accented by blood red clouds on the outside while the inside was the same color as the clouds. Just his very presence made the two blonde believe they couldn't take him on, even together. Naruto was the first to overcome the presence of the man who had apparently rendered this carnage upon the Tasogare camp without obtaining as much as a scratch.

"Who are you?" he managed to stammer out past the lump in his throat. The orange haired man looked the two blondes in the eyes, and they saw for the first time the purple ripples that his eyes seemed to be made of.

"I am god. I am the one who will bring peace to this pathetic world. I am Pain." introduced the man, apparently known as Pain. While his claim to be god was ridiculous, something about the way he carried himself and the power he exuded made Naruto believe him. "I am the leader of a group known as Akatsuki, comprised of a select group of powerful individuals. We cooperate for our own purposes, but my ultimate goal is to bring peace to this world. I am offering the two of you a place within the organization." continued Pain in a tone that brokered no argument.

Naruto was terrified, but he had to know. "How do you plan to bring about 'peace'? I'm all for it, but I won't follow a madman."

"Peace shall be achieved through the jinchuriki, or more specifically, the Tailed Beasts. Akatsuki shall control them to create an era of peace." said Pain with absolute conviction. "Will you stand alongside us?"

Naruto looked at Deidara and the two nodded to each other in unison. "Yes." they said simultaneously. They would follow this god, this Pain.

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**A/N: Second Chapter up. Wooo! I am aware that it skipped around a lot, but it had to be done to get to the meat of the story. This needs to be said, Naruto was born five years earlier than in canon. So while he is twelve, the other members of the Konoha 12 aren't even genin yet. Also, things that happened pre-time skip will happen when Naruto is Shippuden age, and he'll be 19 when Shippuden rolls around. I decided to make Deidar female on a whim, especially since he could be Ino's evil sister already. It won't really affect anything, and it won't be all romantic. That said, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See ya!**

**EDIT: Ugh, now I know what authors mean when they complain about the site removing their line breaks. To those who read the jarbled mess of unbroken time skips yesterday, I'm sorry. **


	3. Chapter 3

Dawn's Sage

Chapter 3

Naruto and Deidara worked together as a two ninja team in the coming years. They had donned the Akatsuki cloak and placed the ring on their fingers. They had met the other members of Akatsuki, and while each was powerful in their own right, none commanded the area around them as much as Akatsuki's leader, Pain. But their adventures in Akatsuki are a tale for another time. For three years after their induction into the ranks of legends, another young ninja begins his journey to become a legend.

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Iruka Umino was one of the few ninja that was entirely content with where he was in life. He had achieved the rank of chunin and become a teacher of the next generation of ninja in the Hidden Leaf Village. While he was originally unsure about being entrusted with such an important duty, some support from his best friend Mizuki had reassured him concerning his abilities. After that small hurdle, the two friends were ready to teach to the young genin-to-be. If only they would STAY AWAKE in class! Having had enough, Iruka threw an eraser at one of the repeat offenders. The blue haired academy student groggily came to his senses as the eraser connected.

"Sora, perhaps you could tell us what type of jutsu the Legendary Sannin all use?" asked Iruka, hoping to teach the kid a lesson about paying attention.

"How the hell should I know? Aren't you the teacher? If you're asking a student for help, maybe someone needs to tell the Hokage about the low quality of the teachers here." responded Sora sarcastically.

Iruka sighed. Sora was always rude, even to people he liked. Not that he had many that liked him, having the Nine Tails sealed inside him. While the beast had strangely disappeared after its attack sixteen years ago, it had resurfaced inside Sora seven years later. It had taken all twelve of the Guardian Ninja to defeat the beast. When the dust cleared, only four people were left alive, one of them being a two year old Sora. Those in the class didn't know why Sora's right hand was bandaged, but those who were there years ago knew of the beast-like arm. Regardless, Iruka was a teacher first, so Sora would be a student first, not a beast.

"You would know, because it's what the class has been covering for the last ten minutes. Maybe if you were awake, you would know that. Sakura, what jutsu are all of the Sannin known for?" interrupted Mizuki, who had far less sympathy for Sora.

"That would be the summoning technique." began the pink hared girl. "Jiraiya summons toads, Orochimaru summons snakes, and Lady Tsunade summons slugs. It's said that-"

"NERD!" interrupted Sora in a very loud and obnoxious manner.

"SORA! DETENTION!" bellowed Iruka, the force from his voice seemingly pushing Sora's hair back like gale-force winds. Sora's head was back on the desk snoring away within the hour.

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Sora had tried to escape out the window immediately after class had been dismissed, but Iruka had noticed and grabbed the wayward student for his punishment. Sora was in the process of carrying logs into the exam room for the Replacement Technique portion of the exams tomorrow.

"You know Sora, your grades as they are won't be able to cushion a failing grade on any portion of the exam tomorrow. Even Shikamaru's grades are higher than yours." said Iruka matter-of-factly.

"So what, you think I can't make the cut, huh bub?" retaliated Sora.

"What was that?" said Iruka menacingly, not taking kindly to a student calling him names.

"Bud! I said bud! Like pal, friend, amigo, comrade, mate, chum!" exclaimed Sora hurriedly to try and avoid anymore punishment.

Iruka sighed at his student's attempt to save himself from the self dug hole. "It's not that you can't make the cut. You have the potential to be one of the best ninja of your generation. But you won't be a ninja of your generation at all if you don't try your best tomorrow. It's not a threat, just a warning from teacher to student." explained Iruka.

"You don't have to pretend to care. I'm used to it." said Sora angrily.

"I'm not pretending, Sora." began Iruka. "I really do-"

"Looks like I'm done with the posts. See ya tomorrow." said Sora as he jumped out of the window to escape the 'caring' teacher. Sora knew what happened when he got close to people; they got hurt or hurt him. Sora had decided long ago to go without friends. No matter how lonely he got.

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Sora's next human contact came hours later as he was napping in one of the trees near the Memorial Stone. The man appeared to be in his early thirties and carried a large staff on his back. He had the sides of his head shaven, leaving brown hair on only the top of his head. His jonin flak jacket was worn with pride, though even more prominently displayed was the waist-cloth adorned with the kanji for fire. Sora recognized him as Kitane, one of the three surviving members of the Twelve Guardian Ninja. He waited for Sora to acknowledge his presence before speaking.

"Didn't your teacher recommend studying? I'm not sure sleeping in trees will be on the test tomorrow." said the lightning user.

"Doesn't matter. Everyone hates me for whatever reason. I doubt they'd let me be a ninja, even if I was the best in the class." said Sora bitterly.

"I knew your father." began Kitane, putting up his hand to stop the question on Sora's tongue. "His name was Kazuma, and he was one of my comrades."

"Wait, does that mean my dad was one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja?!" exclaimed Sora, stunned by this new information. "Why did no one ever tell me?"

"Only Asuma, Chiriku, and I know. Asuma served the Feudal Lord until recently; he probably forgot you were still around. You can't blame Chiriku either; he lives at the Fire Temple up in the mountains doing monk stuff. You were two when he died. I thought you were old enough to remember, and for that I apologize. Only recently did I hear that you had no idea." said Kitane, his voice drenched in sorrow for leaving a friend's son without the knowledge of his father. Sora was still speechless when Kitane spoke up again. "Though if I knew Kazuma, he wouldn't want his only son to fail the Academy Exams. If you manage to pass the test tomorrow, I managed to get an old friend to agree to take you as his student."

"Did he know my father?" asked Sora, desperate for any more information about the father he never knew.

"Asuma and Kazuma were as good of friends as they come. I was never too close to Kazuma," shrugged Kitane. "But Asuma probably knows what his favorite flavor of ramen was. If anyone could tell you more, it would be Asuma."

"Wow." said Sora, thoroughly awed. "I'm definitely gonna pass that test tomorrow, believe it!" exclaimed Sora excitedly.

"Hold up." said Kitane, holding up his hands to emphasize his point. "Asuma did say you had to pass one test to prove that you're more than just Kazuma's son. Asuma wants to see if your Kazuma's _heir_."

"What does that mean?" asked Sora, torn between being furious that there was a catch and confused as to what Kitane meant.

"Like I said earlier, Asuma hasn't heard of you since he's been in the capital this whole time. He trusts me, but he wants to make sure. There's a technique known only by your father and Asuma. He wants to see if you can pull it off. It isn't a complicated technique, but Asuma has the only remaining scroll detailing how to use it. But we both want you to succeed, so I'll tell you where he keeps it." Sora was too ecstatic to have heard about his father and have the hope of more to notice anything suspicious.

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Sora was having a great day ever since Kitane had talked to him. Asuma's apartment had been a piece of cake to break into. The scroll had been somewhat hard to find, but Kitane's instructions hadn't led him wrong, and he had headed out of the village to one of the training ground in the woods. He had forgotten the specific training ground in the excitement of learning a new jutsu on top of finding out about his father. Sora figured he'd see if this Asuma was all that. If he couldn't find Sora practicing a destructive jutsu in the woods, Sora would get all the info about Kazuma he could and train under someone more competent. But deep down, Sora was just too happy to care about anything beyond learning about his father. Sora cracked open the scroll and began to read about the 'Flying Swallow'.

After several hours of practice, Sora was feeling like Kitane had lied to him. This jutsu wasn't easy at all! Channeling chakra was difficult enough, but wind chakra was proving to be impossible. He had been at it for hours, and the claw marks from his weapon were strewn around the clearing he was training in. Sora decided to take a short break to recover his chakra. He didn't pay attention in class all the time…ever, but Iruka made sure a blind, deaf, and dumb worm learned the dangers of chakra exhaustion. Sora didn't exactly know what chakra exhaustion felt like, but he was kinda tired and had been using a lot of chakra, so he assumed that it counted. After a short time Sora did what he did best, sleep.

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"You know, I wasn't sure what to think when Kazuma's son decided to try and steal from a jonin's place of residence in broad daylight." Sora awoke to a deep voice. "If the military police were still around, you'd be sleeping in a jail cell, not a forest." Sora sat up and opened his eyes to take in the new arrival. He wore a jonin's flak jacket and a Leaf forehead protector, identifying him as a ninja. A cigarette hung from his mouth, and his brown hair stretched down from the top of his head to the bottom of his chin in large sideburns and a small goatee. All of this was lost on Sora once he saw the waist cloth with the kanji for fir emblazoned on it, identifying the man as one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja. Other than Kitane, the only living members were Asuma and Chiriku, and since Chiriku was apparently living in some monastery somewhere, this could only be Asuma. Sora was slightly afraid of being punished by the man he had stolen from, but Asuma seemed more amused than angry. "I decided to follow the little squirt who thought he could steal from me, set on stopping a potential spy. But I must say, even if you are Kazuma's kid, learning the Flying Swallow to this degree in such a short time is impressive."

Before Sora could respond, three poles struck the ground in a triangle around him. Lightning sprung from the staffs, forming an electric blue wall around Sora.

"Asuma, glad you showed up. Now we can finish this." said Kitane menacingly as he stepped out from under the trees.

"Finish what? What are you on about?"asked Asuma, confused as to what his old friend was talking about.

"We can avenge Kazuma. We can kill the Nine Tails." said Kitane, a wild look in his eyes.

"What are you talking about?!" asked Sora, even more confused by these proceedings than Asuma. "Where does the Nine Tails come into any of this?!"

"Don't tell me you couldn't figure it out. Your right arm, the hate filled looks, the 'mysterious' disappearance of the Nine Tails? No one knows where the Nine Tails went right after the attack all those years ago, but it resurfaced to attack the Twelve Guardian Ninja. Putting two and two together yet, Sora?" said Kitane as Sora's eyes widened with the realization of what Kitane was implying. "Let me spell it out for you! You aren't Kazuma's son Sora, you just took that form after we defeated you. You are the Nine Tails that killed out comrades all those years ago, including Sora's father Kazuma! Nauma, Seito, Tou, and I defeated you using Limelight long enough for the Third Hokage to seal you back up, but that arm is proof that you'll just break that seal soon enough. I set you on learning the Flying swallow to exhaust you so Asuma and I could finish you off once and for all!"

"What! What are you talking about Kitane? My dad might not be the seal master the Fourth was, but he knows what he's doing. This is Sora, and if you kill him, the Nine Tails he's been holding back all these years like a hero will be released! I took so much sacrifice to stop the beast before, and you'd see that wasted for some misaimed revenge?" Asuma spoke in disbelief before drawing two trench knives out of his kunai pouch. "I'm sorry Kitane, but I won't let the others have died in vain."

"Very well then, Asuma. If you aren't with me, then you're against me! Sorry, but you'll have to die alongside the Nine Tails!" shouted Kitane as he drew another staff from his back, the tip splitting into three prongs, lightning arching between them.

Meanwhile, Sora was shocked by the deluge of information he was receiving. Kitane hadn't meant a word he said earlier. Kitane hadn't wanted to watch over him, or help him become a ninja. He had just wanted to exhaust Sora for an easy kill, and though Sora was loath to admit it, it had worked. He was dead tired.

Asuma's trench knives clashed repeatedly with Kitane's staff. Though the wind chakra coating them gave Asuma the technical advantage, Kitane's staff kept even the elongated knives at a safe distance. And while the wind chakra running their length dispersed the lightning, some still made it down the knives to give Asuma a small jolt. It was nothing in small doses, but the small shocks started to add up.

"Just give it up Asuma! Just let me kill the Nine Tails. There's no need for us to fight." shouted Kitane over the crackling of the lightning and the howling winds.

"Not a chance!" Asuma shot back, jumping back to try and tip the scales. Asuma's hands flew through the seals and Kitane did likewise. They completed their two different techniques at the same time.

**Fire Style: Ash Pile Burning!**

**Lightning Style: Raging Bolt!**

A large sphere of lightning formed over Kitane's head, crackling with power before hurtling down at Asuma. Asuma spit a large black cloud of smoke at Kitane, and the smoke also covered his own escape.

"I always knew you were a coward, but this is a new low for you Asuma!" Kitane whirled around in the smoke, searching for Asuma.

Suddenly, Asuma spoke up, his voice coming from seemingly every direction. "Shame you were always too focused on your berserker charges to notice the end of this jutsu." With that said, an audible click was heard as Asuma hit the flint he had embedded in his tooth ever since Chiriku had chipped it. The resulting spark was enough to expose the smoke for what it actually was, highly flammable gunpowder. The resulting explosion destroyed the area, and for once Sora was glad for the lightning walls surrounding him. Asuma spoke again as the smoke cleared. "Looks like you let your guard down at the end." Asuma walked over to Sora's prison and sliced one of the pillars of the lightning field clean in half, ending the technique.

"Who let his guard down at the end!? **Lightning Style: Lightning Eruption!**"

"What!?" exclaimed Asuma as the ground beneath him lit up an electric yellow. Kitane emerged from the remaining smoke, lightly burnt with his staff in shambles, but otherwise unharmed. The electricity from Kitane's technique shot up from the ground, electrocuting Asuma and bringing him to his knees. As it was, he had only remained conscious through copious amounts of wind chakra being pumped through his body.

Kitane laughed at his former comrade's sorry state. "As if I didn't know what your techniques do! We were comrades for years. Now move aside so I can end the Nine Tails!"

"No. Kazuma wouldn't want this, Kitane. Sora isn't the Nine Tails. I can't profess to know him intimately, but Sora is Sora, no one else. And Sora is our friend's son! I'll die before I let you kill him!" Asuma was shouting by the end, and had tightened his grip on his trench knives.

"Well then I'll just kill you first. L**ightning Style: Thunder Clap**!" Lightning began to cover Kitane's hands as he finished the hand seals for his technique. He rushed forward, bringing his arms back to crush Asuma's head like a grape. Sora's eyes widened as he lunged forward. Kitane grinned internally; Sora's desperate slash with his triple bladed claws would fall a good foot short of Kitane. Kitane adjusted his attack to hit Sora instead of Asuma. The claws passed by harmlessly, and Kitane went in for the kill.

Or he would have, if a sharp pain hadn't spread across his chest. That was when Kitane noticed the red chakra coating the blades of Sora's claws, extending a good foot and a half past the end of the claws. Looking down, Kitane noticed the three parallel slashes across his chest. He had only a second to marvel at the fact that Sora had managed to learn the Flying Swallow technique in only a few hours before the more experienced user of the Flying Swallow struck him square in the chest.

"**Flying Swallow: Straight Line**!" shouted Asuma as his fist slid around Kitane's chest. Then the ground on the other side of Kitane buckled in the shape of a crescent. Kitane's body fell to the ground in two pieces, cut perfectly in half by the blade of wind chakra. Sora looked both awed by the destruction caused by the Flying Swallow and glad that the liar who had manipulated him was dead.

Sora was brought out of his revelry by Asuma's voice. "Come on, Sora. As much as I'd love to collapse here and rest, we'd best report this to the Hokage." Sora could only swallow and nod as Asuma started to walk away. Asuma looked over his shoulder at the young blue haired boy. "And… good work back there. The Flying Swallow isn't easy to learn, so… good job."

Despite all that he had been through, Sora found a grin creeping up on his face.

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Miles away, ten shadowy figures gathered atop the fingertips of a massive statue, only their eyes clearly visible through the technique that allowed them all to gather here. The figure atop the right thumb spoke with clear authority. "Since we are gathered here, I can only assume that Zetsu and Sasori have found the targets. Am I correct?" the figure asked, looking over at the left hand with ringed eyes.

"Indeed, we just located the Nine Tails jinchuriki.**He certainly knows how to hide, but we finally got him to use the Nine Tail's chakra.**Yeah, thanks for letting us use that Kitane guy!" answered the figure on the little finger of the right hand with two distinct voices and a rather unique silhouette.

The hunched over figure on the left thumb of the statue spoke up next in a deep, raspy voice. "Well you're not welcome. That one was a useful spy, not that he knew. But desperate times call for desperate measures. The Nine Tails has certainly kept us waiting, and I hate waiting."

"Now that we have identified the targets, it will be up to you to gather them. Wait until the beast before yours has been captured to move, but once that requirement is met, take as much time as you will. It will make little difference. But do not strike in a way to draw attention. Akatsuki must remain in the shadows a bit longer if we are to succeed in blinding the world with our light." spoke the figure on the right thumb.

"I'm just surprised you managed to find him at all. He's successfully evaded the two best spymasters on the continent for over fifteen years. Good job." said the figure that stood on the left little finger as his golden eyes hid a mixture of relief and confusion.

"We are Akatsuki." spoke a female voice from the right middle finger. "The only time we do not do 'good' jobs is when we do 'perfect' jobs."

"Collect the information on your targets. We start with the Seven Tails. Dismissed." with those final words from the leader, the shadowy figures faded into nothingness and the demonic statue slipped into the ground, leaving no evidence that anyone had ever been there.

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**A/N: Third chapter up. Wooo! This departed a bit from Naruto, but I wanted to set up the events in Konoha. Sora will be taking Naruto's place in his own way. For those of you who don't know, he was important in a filler arc of the anime that made you care about Asuma before Hidan killed him. The premise for this story actually came from the thought of how unstoppable Pain and Sage Mode Naruto would be fighting together. So there's that. Sage Mode will be getting some weaknesses in this story so that Naruto can't just stand there and take Lightning Blades to the face again and again, so Naruto won't be a god. Some people were confused as to why Naruto took the Nine Tails thing so well. In canon, he was hated and despised for years before finally finding out why. He was over it in like ten minutes. Being raised by a loving family, the toads, would probably increase his trauma resistance. Since the Nine Tails disappeared for a few years between Naruto and Sora, the village doesn't hate Sora ****_as much_**** as they hated canon Naruto. Please review, and I'll see ya next week!**


	4. Chapter 4

Dawn's Sage

Chapter 4

"So let me get this straight. We're going to waltz into the most heavily defended Hidden Village IN THE WORLD in full Akatsuki regalia, drop hints about how we're looking for the Nine Tail's jinchuriki, and no one will care?" asked Deidara in disbelief after hearing her partner's 'master plan'.

"People WILL care, that's the point. Nabbing the jinchuriki on an irregular mission to god knows where or lord forbid in the village is suicide." spoke the young sage. "This way, they give him a couple of protectors and ship him off somewhere 'hidden' so we don't wreck the village if we tried to get him that way. Which we won't, because as strong as we are, no one can take on an entire Hidden Village, let alone the Hidden Leaf." Contrary to his statement, Naruto could think of six people who could probably pull off the feat he claimed to be impossible. "Besides, Leader gave us permission to put Akatsuki on the map. If some people see us, it's no big deal."

"Look, my art could probably level a city, but stealth and kidnappings are not my strong suit, yeah." said Deidara, loath to admit that her art had any shortcomings.

"That's why you're partnered with me. My jutsu are based around small scale damage with varying levels of lethality. You just make sure the jinchuriki doesn't start a full transformation. My summons don't like to be called for Tailed Beast emergencies." said Naruto, both to reassure Deidara and fill the time with idle chatter.

"Speaking of which, I've never actually seen you summon anything before. What even is your summoning contract?" asked Deidara, more than willing to oblige Naruto's unspoken request for conversation. The response was cut off by Naruto's abrupt halt. He stuck out his hand to signal a stop.

"We're here." said Naruto as he began running through several hand seals.

"Where is 'here' exactly? This is just some random clearing. The Hidden Leaf is just about a mile ahead. Let's just go ahead and get this 'brilliant' plan of yours over and done." said Deidara. Despite her frustration, she didn't go past Naruto. She had learned over the years that his sensory abilities were surpassed by none except Zetsu and Pain. When he said to stop, you stopped, even if it was in the middle of the woods for no discernible reason. Naruto finished his seals and put his right hand on Deidara's chest, while his left hand took a place on his chest. Just as Deidara was about to call him out for feeling her up, a sealing matrix spread out from Naruto's hands, running across her body before fading. "Okay, what was that, yeah?" asked Deidara, thoroughly confused by her partner's actions.

"The Hidden Leaf is surrounded by a sealed dome, which alerts a team of highly trained ninja about anyone unauthorized entering the city. It doesn't pick up low chakra levels, so trade is fairly unrestricted. And all Leaf headbands have a small seal inside to allow entrance to the village, so their own ninja can pass inside with no problem." informed Naruto.

"If there's some all seeing seal dome around the village, how come I've never heard of it?" asked Deidara.

"Because it's a ninja village." responded Naruto simply. "They keep secrets."

"Then how did you find out about it, yeah?" asked Deidara, now just annoyed at her partner.

"I sensed it easily enough; it's drawing enough Natural Chakra to turn my even me into stone. But I still wouldn't have a clue what the heck it was if Itachi hadn't told me before hand." responded Naruto, answering every question posed to him with a calm that betrayed his young age.

"You and that Uchiha; it's weird, yeah. You'd think you were partners with that jerk instead of with me, the way you two get along. Though I must admit, those sharingan are pretty. Not art level, but they're up there." said Deidara as Naruto laughed at his partner's antics.

"Let's go then. I hear the ramen in the Hidden Leaf is wonderful." said Naruto, his toad-like eyes glowing with anticipation.

"Blegh. It's always ramen with you. We're eating some real food this time, yeah. Let's try to find a dango stand." said Deidara as the two walked into the village proper, drawing some strange looks from the guards for their strange attire and obscuring hats.

"That's even less of a meal than ramen is. At least my suggestion isn't desert." deadpanned Naruto.

"Any better ideas that soggy noodles or delicious sweets?" asked an annoyed Deidara.

"Ramen for lunch then dango for desert?" ventured Naruto tentatively.

"Deal."

The two teenaged members of Akatsuki finished their lunch without event, if one ignored the simply insane amounts of ramen Naruto consumed within the time it took Deidara to finish a single bowl. Deidara decided to throw Naruto under the bus if Kakuzu asked why they had spent more than the allotted amount on this mission. Which of course would happen, since Kakuzu's 'allotted amount' practically had them paying him out of pocket, as opposed to them actually getting money out of the tall bounty hunter. Deidara looked around and was annoyed to see that her absent-minded following of her partner had led them not to a dango stand, but to the outskirts of the village alongside a small waterway.

"What's the big idea, yeah? I was looking forward to those sweets." asked Deidara, only acting annoyed. She knew that Naruto never did anything without reason, even if it wasn't always a good one.

"I thought we might want to eat after dealing with the rats that have been following us, hoping we'd drop something." said Naruto with a meaningful glance over his shoulder. Two figures jumped out of the trees and landed several yard away from the Akatsuki partners. One of them was a tall man with beard and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, while the other was a beautiful woman who was wearing more bandages than actual dress. The first to speak was the man.

"Who are you? And what business do you have in the Leaf?" he inquired, hands twitching towards his kunai pouch.

"We're simply artists and collectors. We were looking for quite the rare piece here in the Leaf. Once we heard it might be here, we came as soon as we were able. After all, there are only nine pieces like it in the world." said Naruto smoothly. He was referring to the jinchuriki, hoping that these jonin could pick up on the hint.

Unfortunately, he appeared to have overestimated them. "What if we don't believe you?" asked the female, hands moving into a more practical position for hand seals as her chakra built up.

"Oh for the love of god, yeah! Let's just get this over with!" shouted Deidara as she removed her hat. Naruto sighed as the slashed Rock forehead protector gleamed in the light. "We're here looking for the Nine Tails. Hand him over, and we won't level this place."

"Deidara, need I remind you we're here to gather information, not start a war. Let me handle this." chided Naruto as he removed his own hat. He turned his eyes to the side briefly as he sensed a small chakra level retreating. He had almost missed it next to the two jonin flaring their chakra right next to him, but Natural Chakra missed nothing. He turned his attention to the two Hidden Leaf ninja before him. "So if you could just tell us where he is, we'll leave with no trouble."

"Sora isn't in the village at the moment, but you won't be around when he gets back, so don't worry!" The man pulled out two small knives as he dashed forward that seemed harmless enough, but Naruto could see the chakra rolling off of them in waves. He blocked the first one with his Sage Mode enhanced forearm, but the wind chakra still managed to leave a small cut. Naruto didn't dwell on it however, and quickly grabbed the jonin's other fist, leaving another shallow cut on his palm, to prevent his opponent from forming any seals. Naruto had to appreciate the chakra blades that would have certainly bisected a normal human, and he was grateful for his diamond hard skin. He pulled his opponent in brought his knee into the man's gut, driving the wind from him like a ton of bricks. Naruto stepped behind his foe and raised his hand to deliver the finishing blow when his hand was stopped by the branches of a tree that had grown from the stones behind him. Naruto linked the obvious genjutsu with the flaring chakra from the woman from before. Once he recognized it, Naruto broke the genjutsu without even trying thanks to the Natural Chakra constantly flooding his chakra system. By simply changing the rate at which he absorbed Natural Chakra, Naruto could break all but the strongest genjutsu. However, Naruto heeded his own advice to Deidara; they did need someone to actually spread the word of their search for the Nine Tails so they could make an attempt when the Hidden Leaf tried to move the jinchuriki to a safer location.

Naruto was so engrossed with his thoughts he almost missed the kunai that the woman drove into his neck. Almost. One didn't have perfect chakra sensing and miss that. The kunai glanced off his Sage Mode enhanced skin, much to the woman's surprise. Naruto brought his hand down to grip the woman's wrist before flipping her over his shoulder. His left hand went to punch her in midair and send her flying. But before he could make contact, she exploded in a shower of flower petals. The male jonin used his position on the ground to attempt a leg sweep, but was grimaced in pain when his kick connected with what felt like a brick wall. The Akatsuki member didn't move an inch as the Leaf jonin retreated to regroup. Naruto didn't need to. He had worked with Deidara long enough to know how long it took to prepare a piece of art.

"Deidara, now." said Naruto as he turned his back on his opponents to jump onto the white bird that rose from the walkway behind him. Deidara grinned as she threw her hands out at the two Leaf ninja. Two small white birds with four wings apiece flew swiftly at the duo.

"Katsu!"

…

Deidara was annoyed at the lack of art that accompanied her shout of creation. Instead of an artistic smear on the ground, two hounds made of lightning were chewing on her clay creations like chew toys before they dispersed into the air. The two jonin that Naruto had effectively manhandled had been joined by a third that was helping them to their feet. The newcomer had a head of spiky silver hair and wore both a mask and a headband over his left eye, leaving only his right eye exposed. Deidara wasn't too mad about the destruction of her art though; she had left a surprise for the man who had managed to draw blood from Naruto, a feat even her art hadn't accomplished.

As the duo flew away, a segmented centipede rose from the ground and wrapped itself around the bearded jonin. The lightning user channeled his element into his right hand and sliced the centipede from top to bottom. Ant other one of her creations would have been shorted out by the electrical interference, but this art was actually many small pieces that acted independently. The portions that had been cut in half by their weakness didn't detonate, but the lower ones that had yet to be touched exploded with all the glory Deidara had come to expect from her art.

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Shikamaru and Choji were in a hurry. Sure Sora was an abrasive jerk, but he was a fellow member of Team 10. Asuma had been rushed to the hospital, unconscious with his legs a mangled mess, so it was up to them to help warn Sora of these Akatsuki people that wanted him dead. It hadn't taken long for Shikamaru to find out that Sora had left with Jiraiya of the Sannin to find Tsunade of the Sannin, both to become the next Hokage and heal the previous Hokage, who had fallen into a coma after his fight against the Fourth Kazekage. The attempted invasion of the Hidden Sand had been painful, but not devastating by any means. The Hidden Leaf would recover. Shikamaru knew that there were certain people that would want revenge, but he also knew that no one wanted to spark another war. Both sides had lost enough already; further conflict would just drag in the other nations.

Shikamaru had found out from his father that the targeted duo was starting their search in Tanzaku Town, a small tourist community not too far from the Hidden Village. He had no doubts that Jiraiya could handle himself, but the element of surprise had killed many ninja before the legendary Sannin, and would kill many after. If he knew about the threat, half the battle was already won.

The two friends arrived at Tanzaku Town and were simply overwhelmed by the sheer ustle and bustle of the city. The Hidden Leaf was just a large, but it was designed around utility and defense, not as a massive advertisement. The two decided to split up and search for Jiraiya and Sora separately to speed things up. Shikamaru figured that if they were found by the Akatsuki, two genin would be little more threat than one. The only hope they had was to find Jiraiya before Akatsuki.

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It had been a while since Jiraiya had seen the small toad on his windowsill. The tiny red creature had told him that it possessed crucial information, but would only reveal it if the Sannin caught it and bought the toad candy. The toad then jumped off the windowsill and began hopping like mad through the city. It took Jiraiya several seconds to process what had just happened. Jiraiya had never met this particular toad, and so had no way to simply summon him back. And so the great Sannin, Toad Sage of Mount Myobokuzan, the man men want to be and women want, was reduced to chasing a toad the size of his fist around the town like a genin on his first D-Rank.

He had told the tagalong kid that Asuma had sent with him to book a room at the hotel, and Jiraiya was almost glad to be away from the Nine Tail's Jinchuriki's incessant whining. Or he would be, if this accursed toad wasn't so darn fast!

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Naruto and Deidara hovered above Tanzaku Town, doing lazy circles on the clay hawk. Naruto had yet to meet the Nine Tail's jinchuriki himself, but he assumed he simply had to find the biggest chakra source in the city and find its source. The two largest in the city were actually fairly close in size, but they were travelling together, so Naruto could only assume that these travelers were the jinchuriki and its protector. Once Deidara described the two to him courtesy of some long range reconnaissance from the camera-like device over her left eye, Naruto recognized the younger as the jinchuriki Sasori and Zetsu had found, while the older was Jiraiya of the Sannin, the only other Toad Summoner. It had been a clever plan, in Naruto's opinion to lure Jiraiya away with a Gamakichi by promising snacks should he distract the Sannin for long enough. It was almost too easy, which is why something had to go wrong.

He really couldn't even blame anyone but himself. He had focused a bit too much on making sure that their entrance didn't destroy half the city and so had dismissed the two relatively small chakra signatures that were quickly approaching the target. The three immortals of Akatsuki would never let him live down such a rookie mistake, even if he was still technically a rookie.

The approach had gone smoothly enough. They had descended, no one paying them any more attention than they would any other bird. They had entered the hotel through the window of an adjacent room. Naruto entered the hotel proper, while Deidara remained at the window to give pursuit should the jinchuriki attempt to flee out of the window. The two young Akatsuki members had decided to stick it to their superiors by capturing one of their targets first, only several miles from the nearest Hidden Village to top it all off. Of course, any prolonged conflict would bring both the wrath of the Hidden Leaf and the scorn of their elders in Akatsuki. Naruto decided to tackle this one himself, since Deidara wasn't really a stealth person.

Naruto calmly knocked on the door, but inside he was a raging tumult of emotions. If this Leaf genin was really the Nine Tail's jinchuriki or a suitable substitute, Naruto was off the hook. All he had to do was not use the Nine Tail's chakra, something he didn't even know how to do, in front of an Akatsuki member, and he was home free. Several seconds after his knock, the door opened, and a blue haired kid poked his head out, Leaf forehead protector on display upon his forehead. To the average passerby, he was a normal kid, if a ninja. But to Naruto, his chakra was a raging sea of raw energy, most of it his own, but trace amounts undeniably demonic in nature. Focusing on the source of the demonic chakra, Naruto found the sea located on the jinchuriki's stomach contained a chakra exactly like his own. The only difference was the sheer amount, but that would hardly matter. Nine Tails chakra was Nine Tails chakra, regardless of the amount. Naruto was safe.

"Who the hell are you?" Naruto had been so focused on the relief he felt at not being hunted down by his own comrades that he almost missed the target's annoyed response to being woken up from a wonderful nap.

Naruto went to step forward and sucker punch the target. With Sage Mode, it would be an easy knock out. Only he couldn't move.

"Shadow Possession Complete."

Naruto's eye widened as he realized what the target had done. The reason his chakra had been so large and easy to read was because he had been flaring it. The massive chakra source in the small room, coupled with Naruto's single mindedness in his sensing meant that the two smaller sources that had been trying to hide their chakra had been passed over without a second thought. With Naruto now on full alert, the two genin were as easy to spot as his own Akatsuki cloak. Naruto had missed them, and was now paying the price. He couldn't move as the large, now larger, genin began spinning towards him. Naruto was in trouble.

Or he would be, if he weren't a Sage, member of Akatsuki, and S-Rank ninja. The shadow that was connected to his own was easily destroyed with some Sage Chakra channeled through it. He brought his hands up to catch the large human boulder that was hurtling towards him. Thanks to his Sage Mode, it didn't hurt in the slightest, but the sheer velocity and mass of the technique sent him skidding back into the hallway. The spinning finally stopped, but before the large ball could revert back to a more human shape, Naruto brought his right hand back. He used said hand to deliver a powerful strike to the middle of the large mass in front of him. One could see the hit send ripples across the ball before the genin was sent flying down the hall, cracking the wall upon impact. The fat Leaf genin's technique ended as he was forcefully sent spiraling into unconsciousness.

With one out of the way, Naruto turned his attention to the two genin in the room, who had since moved out into the hallway. The weaker one's shadow shot out once more, but that was easily dealt with via brute force. The jinchuriki ran at him with a set of claws, obviously assuming that Naruto would be held immobile by the strange shadow technique. Naruto noticed the chakra coming off of the claws, similar to the day's earlier encounter with a set of trench knives. Not wanting to be cut by a set of genin, Naruto spat a glob of toad oil into the jinchuriki's face. The oil obscured the blur of movement that was Naruto even more as he delivered a vicious chop to the back of the jinchuriki's neck, sending him to a forced sleep.

Naruto continued on to the third genin, the one that had managed to catch him off guard. Naruto was a sage! Sages were not caught off guard! It might have been petty, but Naruto was in a hurry, and Akatsuki was supposed to be brutal and unforgiving. The straight forward jab appeared to be a simple attack to dodge, and despite Naruto's speed, the young genin appeared to do just that. Then he went flying down the hall anyway.

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Shikamaru struggled to stay conscious. He hadn't planned on the Akatsuki being this ridiculously powerful. The plan was supposed to end when Choji's Human Boulder connected with the man at the door. But instead the attack had failed for whatever reason, most likely a defensive jutsu of high rank, and the following fight was better described as a no holds barred beatdown. But Sora was a teammate, and dare he say it, a friend. Shikamaru would not allow Akatsuki to win this easily. He struggled to his feet, but his vision was blurred and his ears were ringing with strange notes. He knew he had no real hope of beating an S-Rank ninja as he was. And people wondered why he enjoyed himself while he could.

Shikamaru was honestly surprised, something that didn't happen often, when his vision cleared up, and was more shocked when he was surrounded by four large toads, each wearing what would have been a comical getup in any other situation. Beyond them was a nondescript pink background. The toads seemed immobile, standing with a sword in one hand and the other thrust out as if to hold Shikamaru back.

"Enjoy your stay. You won't be leaving." Shikamaru looked down to see the Akatsuki member he had been 'fighting' fading away. This was a genjutsu, it had to be. Shikamaru disrupted his chakra flow, slowing down his life energy to a trickle before using all he had in one big flare. When he opened his eyes, he has still surrounded by the four toads, in his strange prison. Only the toad song to keep him company.

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Naruto supposed that using the Toad Confrontation Chant might have been overkill for a simple genin, but he was still kind of angry from the whole immobilization thing earlier. Plus, with all luck, the Hidden Leaf would place a higher priority on two genin in comas than a third who went mysteriously missing. Naruto turned around to collect the jinchuriki, but was furious at what he saw, not that he showed it.

"I thought I heard toad song." spoke the man in red, who was holding the jinchuriki over his shoulder. The newcomer was clad in red and wore a headband with the kanji for oil on it. Naruto grit his teeth at the appearance of the Toad Sannin, knowing that any conflict with him would be long and loud enough to bring any ninja within a hundred miles. The Sannin set his charge up against the wall, before running through the seals for the Summoning Technique. "You won't be leaving here." When Jiraiya slapped his hands on the ground, the walls began to morph into a pink flesh.

Naruto recognized this as a cave he once found on Mount Myobokuzan which was in actuality the throat of a massive toad. With the jinchuriki and the two genin, one unconscious and the other staring blankly into space, Naruto didn't think that he would have to worry about the fire breathing aspect of this toad that had nearly roasted him all those years ago. Naruto prepared to fight his way out, but Jiraiya noticed the clay spider that was lurking on the ceiling. The spider jumped down, but was impaled on the Sannin's now spikier white mane as it wrapped around him and the jinchuriki. The explosive went off anyway, and Deidara ran out of the room she had been waiting in. She might like a fight more than Naruto, but she had no wish to use her ultimate art today, and the Sannin would definitely hold them long enough for help to arrive. She knew when a plan had gone south.

When Jiraiya's hair returned to its regular size and shape, he was surprised by the amount of smoke in the corridor. The lack of a follow-up attack meant that the Akatsuki duo had fled when he was distracted by the explosion going off in his hair. What the Sannin couldn't figure out was how they had done it. The Toad Mouth Bind was durable enough to take those kinds of explosions all day. As the smoke cleared, Jiraiya first noticed the safety of the three genin on Team 10. Then he noticed the completely clear walls. Somehow, the two had managed to completely destroy the throat of the mountain toad enough to force a summon dismissal. Jiraiya turned the corner to see a large hile in the wall of the hotel, no doubt caused by that exploding jutsu.

Jiraiya approached the wall to check the damage and look for clues as to how they had managed to dismiss his toad.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" Jiraiya knew then, it was just not his day.

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**A/N: Chapter four up! Wooo! This story has received mixed reviews so far, a few supportive, most flames. Mostly I'm going on the assumptions that since people keep favoriting this and following it, they must want to keep reading it. Having some of this reflected in review would be nice. So go on, review! On another note, to address concerns, Sora is not replacing Canon Naruto. I was making parallels, not just switching names and places. Sora is exactly what he was in canon, a pseudo-jinchuriki. Sasori and Zetsu were fooled by the closest thing to the real deal you can get. Naruto isn't about to correct them. When I said Sage Mode would be getting some weaknesses, I didn't mean that Naruto was weak, I just meant that he'll need to dodge when a high level piercing or cutting jutsu comes at him. Any review is appreciated, and some positive reinforcement goes a long way. See ya!**


	5. Chapter 5

Dawn's Sage

Chapter 5

Being home was a good feeling for most people. Granted, most people didn't leave home after killing hundreds of allies in attempt to murder a country's leader, getting pursued by legions of hunter ninja, and joining a group of legends and monsters. So Kisame was not experiencing a good feeling because he was home. He was experiencing a good feeling because he was home to finish what he started. Sure, he wasn't supposed to kill the Fourth Mizukage in battle like he wanted, but watching the life be slowly siphoned out of him over three excruciating days would suffice.

Using the blue man's intricate knowledge of the islands that composed the Land of Water and the secret tunnels that connected them, Kisame and his partner had snuck through the country to the arrive at the Village Hidden in the Mist. The Uchiha wasn't happy about the heavy mist obscuring his precious eyesight, but Kisame was in his element. He had never been as good as Zabuza at Silent Killing, a fact that irked him each and every day, but the mist was his ally nonetheless. The two S-Rank ninja's maneuvered their way around the village for several days, keeping a low profile as they observed the Mizukage's routine. Of course, the two Akatsuki members left the reconnaissance mostly up to Itachi, since Itachi wasn't a missing ninja from the same village they were hiding in. His Sharingan allowed him to discreetly obtain information from loyal Mist ninja via genjutsu and memorize anything instantaneously. And he wasn't a six foot tall blue shark man carrying a massive national treasure on his back secured in some bandages. That might have also had something to do with it.

Over a week or two, the dangerous duo had discovered that among the Mizukage's routine, the young ruler trained on a private island not even his ANBU were allowed on. Not only would the Mizukage be alone, but any massive combat commotion that would no doubt ensue when three ninja of their caliber clashed would be written off as the Mizukage training. The two snuck onto the island as the Mizukage left from his training session and prepared for his arrival the next day.

Upon arriving at his island retreat the next day, Yagura entered a forest that he hadn't destroyed yet during his training. He walked into the foliage for several minutes before he stopped and spoke aloud. "I'm fully aware why Kisame would be after me, but I find it difficult to imagine what I did that deserves the wrath of an Uchiha as well. Kisame is aware of this, but I'll warn as Uchiha as well. If you fight me with Kisame, it will be the last fight of your life."

The two Akatsuki members emerged from the trees into the clearing where Yagura stood. Itachi was the one to respond in his monotone drawl. "We could care less about you. We're after the Tailed Beast; you are a minor inconvenience."

Yagura laughed aloud at that. "You really think you can take me? Ask Kisame, he tried once before, and it took all his skills to escape with his life. And I haven't been resting on my laurels either. So come at me, and see if you can make me draw even a drop of the Three Tail's chakra." said Yagura as he took the hooked staff from its place on his back. Yagura held out his other hand in a half ram seal as he held out his staff. A small circle of water formed at the tip, and launched a barrage of needles at the Akatsuki members. Upon closer inspection, one would see that these needles were not made of water as one might expect, but of coral. The Mizukage's coral was unique even by ninja standards, as it drained chakra from whatever it latched onto to grow even larger, eventually encasing its target. Kisame stabbed his blade into the ground and balanced on top of it to get above the coral's reach, but Itachi allowed himself to be struck, only to dissolve into a flock of crows.

Kisame meanwhile was busy forming hand seals while balancing on the hilt of Samehada. Upon finishing the seals, the water specialist of Akatsuki reared back his head before puking out hundreds of gallons of water, forming a small tidal wave. As the water rose into the air, Yagura simply twirled his staff around in a circle, the motion forming a larger mirror of water. Upon completing the circle, Yagura hooked the top of his mirror with his staff and drug it to the ground in a single movement. When the mirror struck the ground, water exploded upwards, far more than the mirror had been composed of. Soon Yagura stood atop his own tidal wave, equal in size and shape to Kisame's own. The two Exploding Water Shockwaves collided and canceled each other out, and Samehada collided with Yagura's staff in a mighty clash of steel and scales. The excess water from the attacks flooded the forest under several dozen feet of water.

The two Mist ninja landed apart from each other, standing on the water as Itachi reformed out of crows next to Kisame. The blue shark man was frustrated that his attack had been so easily beaten, but Yagura leaned on his staff wearing a smirk. Kisame ran at the Mizukage, who brought up his staff in a defensive stance. Itachi ran after Kisame to assist, but the Mizukage was doing nothing but defending almost contemptuously, wielding his staff effortlessly with one hand. Yagura brought the hook of his weapon down to catch the hilt of Samehada, ripping it form Kisame's grasp.

"**Coral Palm!**" shouted Yagura as he struck forward with his free hand at Kisame's exposed chest. Before he could make contact however, Itachi struck with his own jutsu. Yagura and Kisame jumped apart as the flaming dragon screamed past them, the water beneath it turning into steam. Yagura's hand caught the edge of the flames despite his hasty retreat, leaving him with a bad burn across his left hand, but nothing an experienced ninja like Yagura couldn't ignore. Kisame landed, and Samehada shot through the water towards him, eager to be reunited with its master. Itachi and Kisame glanced at each other, then nodded in unison. The two moved in perfect harmony, created from years of working together. Itachi dissolved once more into a flock of crows, as Kisame sprinted around Yagura.

The crows flocked around Yagura to obscure his vision, but Yagura was able to bat away those that came too close with ease, and sensing Kisame's monstrous chakra was so simple an Academy student could do it. Time seemed to slow however, as one of the crows flew directly past his face, its sharingan eye staring back intently. The world dissolved to black and white, and the clouds moved backwards in the sky. The crows flying about morphed into shuriken that flew towards the Fourth Mizukage at amazing speeds, digging into his flesh and restricting his movement. The Mizukage was no stranger to genjutsu, and recognized this one almost immediately, but somehow, the genjutsu was resisting his attempts to disrupt it. However, through sheer force of will, the Mizukage endured. He convinced himself that the pain was not real, even though every fiber of his body was shouting the exact opposite.

He convinced himself the pain was fake, until a large object hit him square in the back. He could feel the chakra being drained, no, _eaten_ as Samehada was dragged along his back. The most powerful of the Seven Swords shaved off a fair bit of flesh as well. Yagura could only compare the sensation to having a stick covered in razor blades run across his back, only several hundred times worse. Looking up to the black sky, Yagura saw that not even that pain had been able to break him out of the genjutsu. A he gazed upon the sharingan moon, he realized it was getting closer. He tried to move, but the pain, both real and genjutsu induced, made sure he could only look on in terror as the orb descended and crushed him. In the distance, he heard Itachi's monotonous voice echo, "Seventy-one hours fifty-nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds remaining."

Itachi held his hand up to cover his bleeding left eye as Yagura collapsed on the ground. Kisame turned his eyes to his partner, worried that whatever technique Itachi used had some detrimental side effect. Their attention quickly turned to the Mizukage, who despite the powerful genjutsu and extreme pain was standing back up, this time coated in a cloak of solid red chakra. Three tails swished behind him as he moved his hands together into a series of hand seals. Kisame brought up Samehada, to deflect whatever came at them and Itachi's sharingan blazed back to life, showing him every move in slow motion before it was made. But neither of them was prepared for what came next. The Mizukage slammed his hands together and released a massive blast of demonic chakra. The deep water that Kisame had placed to assist his techniques was pushed back in a large tidal wave that the Akatsuki partners jumped away from. When the water settled, the Mizukage was gone, leaving the two missing ninja alone on a placid lake. It seemed as though he had made his escape, but Samehada and Itachi's sharingan picked up the buildup of chakra below in time for them to start running away.

The lake beneath their previous location suddenly erupted in a spray of water and deadly black chakra. As the blast dissipated, a large three tailed turtle emerged from the depths of the water. One eye closed, the spiky beast spat out a massive ball of water that quickly approached the two Akatsuki members. Kisame brought Samehada up to block the attack, and the shark sword ate the chakra in the water bullet. Kisame was taken aback when the enormous amount of chakra caused Samehada grow exponentially, its sudden increase in mass almost causing Kisame to drop is sword. The most powerful of the Seven Swordsmen had been sure that Samehada could take more than one water bullet, but he didn't know that it wasn't a water bullet. In actuality, it had been a ball of pure water chakra, dense enough to have the appearance of real water. Kisame steadied his now even more massive sword as the half submerged Three Tails quickly swam towards them. Kisame quickly ran through the hand signs of the one jutsu he knew that might be able to defeat the beast as the hilt of his sword snaked its way up his sleeve.

The transformed Yagura was met with a large ball of water in front of him, but confident in the swimming abilities of his transformed state, swam right on in. He could immediately feel his chakra being drained, but against the raw power of a Tailed Beast, the amount being taken was a pittance. The Mizukage saw a small creature darting around his head, and felt it striking at his hard shell, drawing a little chakra each time. As it darted before him once more, he noticed the figure was actually Kisame, who had somehow developed a method of fusing with his sword to become even more shark-like. The monster that Kisame had become was puny compared to the monster Yagura had become, but he was fast monster underwater. Kisame ran through some quick hand seals and summoned a multitude of sharks made of the surrounding water to hide himself in as he, and his sharks, began eating away at the Three Tail's chakra reserves. The beast bellowed and swung its tails, destroying many sharks, but the predators seemed to be numberless, splitting into more when they ate enough chakra. The Three Tails roared, the sound containing a huge amount of chakra itself. Enough chakra, in fact, to disrupt Kisame's Feeding Frenzy Technique, as the sharks dispersed into the surrounding waters.

The demonic turtle had definitely lost mass, and Kisame was glad to know his jutsu had done something, even if he had been stealing chakra, not flesh. Then Kisame noticed that the beast was actually regaining its previous size before his eyes. The half shark looked closer and saw that the edges of the beast were made of the same red chakra he had seen the Mizukage covered in after Itachi's genjutsu. Kisame grinned as he realized the implications of fighting an opponent whose entire body was composed of chakra. The water expert of Akatsuki dispersed his Water Prison Shark Dance Technique, the water running off into the ocean. His sword emerged from his arm as his appearance become more normal. The Three Tails didn't expect the sudden change of battlefield, and so fell to the ground from the now air inhabited sky. Kisame looked up and began flying through the seals needed for his trump card before the giant turtle crushed him. He finished, and thrust his hand skyward.

"**SUPER WATER SHARK BOMB!**" shouted Kisame as the water beneath him churned upward, forming a massive shark that charged the falling Three Tails. The shark engulfed its target, then clamped its mouth shut, mimicking a movement made by Kisame's hands. The Three Tails began to rapidly shrink and the shark bomb rocketed up into the sky as it grew to epic proportions, dwarfing the sun in the sky. The now chakra-less Yagura was launched along in the torrent of water. The technique lived up to its name as it exploded high in the sky.

Kisame panted with his arms raised to the sky as he looked over at his partner, who was looking as awed as his Uchiha pride would let him. The Uchiha had made himself scarce when Kisame had flooded the battlefield, and Kisame was glad for it. They both knew that the fire user would only be a hindrance in the Water Prison Shark Dance. The debris from Kisame's shark bomb fell from the sky like rain, but one chunk was larger than the rest.

Kisame and Itachi looked at the very wet, very dead body of the Fourth Mizukage before turning their gaze to each other. The final attack had been too powerful, fueled by the full power of a tailed beast, and had killed Yagura. The two were not excited to think of Pain's reaction to their failed mission.

"On the upside, no one will know it was Akatsuki if we get out of here fast enough?" suggested Kisame. Itachi simply nodded, and the two quickly disappeared.

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Jiraiya was not in a good mood. He had found Tsunade, and she had returned, if just to heal their sensei. The legendary medic had also healed the three genin that had been injured by Akatsuki as well as their sensei, who had nearly had his legs blown off. After the Third Hokage's plea, the last Senju had agreed to stay in the village and take over for the old monkey if he kicked the bucket. This was all great news, but it did nothing to alleviate the foul mood that had fallen over the Toad Sage since his brief run in with Akatsuki. He had thought back to the forced unsummoning of the Fire Breathing Mountain Toad's Throat, and the bombs he blocked wouldn't have done the kind of damage necessary to dismiss the summon. Besides, the lack of shockwaves or booms pointed to it not being forced dismissal by damage at all. And the only alternative was dismissal by another summoner.

And that was impossible, since Jiraiya knew he was the only summoner, except for the other toads. The Akatsuki member had also seemed to use the Toad Confrontation Chant on Shikamaru, something only Fukasaku and Shima working together could do. Which meant that blond haired Akatsuki member had done the impossible twice. And Jiraiya hadn't been looking, but he could have sworn that the missing ninja had been utilizing Sage Mode from Shikamaru's reports. Most took the being hit by nothing after dodging story as the word of a concussed genin who had been in a genjutsu coma for two weeks. But Jiraiya knew such technique was possible. And he knew of only two people besides himself who could do it.

"Ah, Jiraiya my boy! How nice of you to visit. What brings you out to our humble mountain?" asked Fukasaku as Jiraiya approached the dwelling of the two elderly toads. "Ma's a little mad ya don't come by more often, so you might want to compliment her cooking first if ya want her to talk to you." whispered Fukasaku to the old toad summoner.

"Actually Pa, I'm here to see if you know anything about a group called Akatsuki." said Jiraiya, cutting right to the chase. "I fought one of their members, and I he did things only a Toad Summoner could do."

"I was wondering when you two would meet." said Shima as she emerged from the hut carrying a platter of various bugs and insects. "Naruto has been a Toad Summoner in the world for several years now."

"What? What happened to me picking my own apprentice and successor? And besides, he's allied with the enemy!" exclaimed Jiraiya. "Akatsuki isn't just a group of missing ninja, they directly attacked the Hidden Leaf!"

"You had your shot to pick a successor, but Minato died. And as tragic as that was, there wasn't another successor coming from you, so we picked him to be our summoner." said Fukasaku calmly. "And before you get your mouth all puffed up, the toads serve their summoner. We've been allied with others before the Hidden Leaf and we'll be allied with others after the Hidden Leaf. As long as we have a summoner roaming the world, the toads are content."

"So, what? I'm not a Toad Summoner anymore?" asked Jiraiya in disbelief.

"No no no. The toads will still heed your calls and follow your instructions, but we'll also do the same for anyone else who holds our summoning contract. Now calm down before you start crying and have some lunch." said Shima reassuringly as she held up the platter of 'food' for Jiraiya to sample.

"NO!... thanks. I uh… just ate before I came up here." panicked the Sannin before becoming serious once more. "I understand your reasons, but I still don't like this. Having a Toad Summoner playing for the other team is something I can't support, and I can't believe you do."

"Jiraiya, we're older than you by a long shot. This isn't our first picnic, and the transition between summoner loyalties id always conflicting. This method has worked for the toads in the past and it will work again. Maybe not for you, but consider it a trial by fire. If you can beat Naruto, you can pick another summoner to succeed you as the strongest Toad Summoner." said Fukasaku solemnly, showing every one of his hundreds of years through his words.

"Alright. I'm not one to argue with tried and true methods like that, but I will be beating this upstart brat and defending my summoning contract." said Jiraiya, acknowledging his resignation to the way things had to be. "So his name is Naruto, huh? Seems familiar…"

"He was named after your first book, you fool." said Fukasaku, almost proudly.

"Huh." grunted Jiraiya. "I guess he sort of is my legacy, but if so, he's a legacy I have to erase. Akatsuki isn't some after school club. They're my enemies, and anyone affiliated with them has to go down."

Fukasaku and Shima could only worry about for the lives of their students as Jiraiya walked away from the two elder Sages.

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Pain was not in a good mood. He rarely was, but today was worse than most. He had amassed a group of the strongest missing ninja and unaffiliated ninja in the world, but somehow, they had managed to fail, not once, but two times in the same week. Naruto and Deidara were excusable; they were young and trying to prove themselves, and fleeing when confronted by Jiraiya of the Sannin not twenty miles from the Hidden Leaf was understandable. But Kisame losing himself in the battle and the past resulted in the death of the Fourth Mizukage, and the Three Tails along with him. Luckily the mishap had occurred with one of the lesser Tailed Beasts. The more tails the beast had, the longer it would take for the Tailed Beast to reform. Each tail corresponded to roughly a year, give or take. A three year delay was annoying and inconvenient, but at least Kisame hadn't killed the Eight Tails. Why Itachi hadn't been able to stop the shark man was a mystery, but the rogue Uchiha had Pain's confidence, unless Pain violated his end of the deal.

Pain held no illusions that anyone in Akatsuki besides himself and Konan cared about world peace, and in fact would be surprised if he didn't have to kill some of them before this was all over. He already had. One of the repercussions of Itachi joining Akatsuki had been Pain learning of 'Madara' and his true goals. He had dared defy a god, and paid the price. Pain did have to admit though; the fool had earned his place as an S-Rank ninja. It was a confidence booster as well. If Pain could defeat the great Madara Uchiha, he could defeat anyone.

But for the most part, Akatsuki helped them get what they wanted, and that was how the missing ninja world worked. You did what suited you with who suited you and dumped them the moment something else suited you more. The process usually involved one of the parties dead on the ground, but not only the best survived. And Akatsuki were the best.

Yet the best had messed up twice, once to expose them and their short term goals to the Hidden Leaf, and once to delay their plan a full three years. There was a meeting of Akatsuki about to start, and Pain would let the four failures know the depths of his displeasure.

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**A/N: Chapter five up! Wooo! Originally this chapter was just the two last scenes with Pain and Jiraiya, meant to ease the transition into the Shippuden era, but I decided to actually write the Yagura fight instead of just write ****_about_**** it. The other fight option I had was Pain vs. Tobi, but before he steals Nagato's Rinnegan, Tobi's power consists of not getting hit. I honestly had no idea how to write a fight with him as is, so I had Pain discover what he was up to and kill him off. If anyone is B.A. enough to kill Tobi, it's Pain. If I have an idea on how a fight between Pain and Tobi would work, I'll write it at a later date, or if anyone has any ideas as to how to make a fight between the two anything more than 'attack, phase through, repeat' I'm all ears. I'll be jumping to Shippuden soon, but this is a story about Naruto in Akatsuki, and they don't do all that much before Shippuden. On another note, the positive reviews I received last week were absolutely uplifting and I hope some of that awesome feeling was conveyed back this chapter. I case you don't think that a review is worth it, I got a review that said "cool..update" and it was strangely motivational. I hope you enjoyed and reviews are always appreciated! See ya!**


	6. Chapter 6

Dawn's Sage

Chapter 6

Naruto hadn't been happy to receive Pain's anger, even though it was more like being informed of his failure. He was just reminded that he had failed in front of nine of the most powerful people in the world, all of whom had been doing this for much longer than he had, Deidara excluded. Akatsuki's youngest had blown their mission, and exposed Akatsuki as a criminal group hunting jinchuriki in the process. Naruto had been relieved that Kisame and Itachi had apparently also screwed up big time, managing to kill one of the nine people in the world that Akatsuki was supposed to take alive. The whole debacle would push Akatsuki's plans back a full three years, during which they would lay low and hope that Akatsuki would be forgotten.

In the meantime, Akatsuki still had to take jobs, both to keep a steady income and to keep in view of the other nations that employed the group. Dropping off the face of the map would raise more questions than they would like. Months had passed, but the two teams responsible were still paying for their failure. To pay for their failure, the two blondes had been given second to last pick of the missions. Kakuzu had jumped on the bounty hunting request before his partner could blink, or swear, and Sasori decided to take an assassination job that would hopefully net him a strong puppet. As leader of Akatsuki, Pain could not be bothered with missions, so Deidara had decided to take the more interesting of the two remaining jobs. At the end of the day, conquering a small nation sounded much more fun than stealing a piece of art. Plus Deidara would likely disagree with the so-called 'art' and turn it into 'true' art, voiding the contract to recover the masterpiece intact. So the two youngest members of Akatsuki left to blow up a nation, leaving their two elders to sneak into a museum.

The Land of Honey wouldn't know what hit it.

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"Team Asuma reporting for duty, Lord Hokage." said Shikamaru as he stood at attention alongside Choji and Sora.

"Please, it's a title I'll be passing on in a few weeks time. Once the paperwork goes through, I'll just be Sarutobi." said the wizened old man behind the desk. He was sixty-nine years old, an impressive feat for any ninja, and retiring for the second time. This time, the title of Hokage would be passing on to his student, Tsunade of the Sannin. The legendary medic had brought her teacher out of the coma he had been launched into after defending his village from the Invasion of the Hidden Sand. The invasion had failed spectacularly, but the oldest Kage had been seriously hurt in the process of defeating the Fourth Kazekage. The man had, among other injuries, managed to crush a lung with his feared Gold Dust Techniques. The Third Hokage was alive, but he would fight no more. Tsunade had agreed to take the position, but the paperwork would take time to be approved by the Feudal Lord, and then by the jonin of the village.

"Still, Lord Hokage, it is a title you will bear for the time being. What was this mission that you called us here to give in person?" asked Shikamaru.

"This is to be your first test as a chunin, Shikamaru. Your team was chosen for their unique skills that make them perfect for this mission. It comes straight from the Feudal Lord of the Land of Fire. Bear in mind that this mission involves a nation's governance." warned the Third Hokage.

Shikamaru sighed as his slouch seemed to become even more pronounced. "What a pain."

The genin present decided to make their thought heard as well. "Don't say that in front of Asuma's old man." Sora berated his teammate.

"Will we have time to eat on this mission?" chimed in Choji.

"Talking about food again?" asked Ino Yamanaka as she walked into the room along with the rest of her team.

"Why do you care?" asked Choji as he took an angry step forward.  
"Besides, why are you guys even here?" asked Sora as he glared at the one male genin on Team Seven.

"The Hokage called us in for a mission. It'll be our first rank above D in a while, not that you losers would be trusted with a mission even that important." shot back the Uchiha.

"Yeah, Sasuke is the best around! It's amazing he isn't being given an even more important mission, like an A-rank!" shrieked the pink haired member of the team.

"Whatever." retorted Sora. "Our mission was a special request from the Feudal Lord himself. Beat that you jerks."

"Actually, I think you'll find none of you will win this little argument." interrupted the Hokage, reminding everyone of the present company. The two teams stood in a single line like the soldiers they were, and not the children they had been behaving like. "Since, you'll all be going on the same B-rank mission, no one can claim to be better than the others. Of course, as the only chunin here, Shikamaru will be leading this mission." The Hokage took a second to chuckle to himself at the incredulous expressions on the genins' faces. The single chunin in the room looked like he might be sick. "Now would you like me to explain what this mission is?"

"Of course. Our apologies Lord Hokage." answered Shikamaru promptly. "Please continue."

"Put bluntly, this mission will be a kidnapping. A young lord is being held in the capital of the Land of Honey. The mission will be to recover him from the Land of Honey, and bring him back to the Land of Fire. Due to political reasons that I won't bore you with, anonymity is required. You must not be discovered. The details are in the mission scroll I gave you." said the Hokage, all business from this point out. The assembled teenagers gulped as they witnessed the change from kind grandfather to ruthless dictator in under a second. "Do you understand?"

"Of course Lord Hokage." said Shikamaru. He turned to address the other five members of his team. "Let's go."

The six classmates all exited the room and quickly left the building for their destination. The Hokage watched them leaving through the large window of his office. Without turning around, he addressed the brown haired ANBU member behind him. "This mission is meant as a test for Shikamaru, to see if he can handle himself in the field, but this mission could quickly spiral into an A or even S-Rank. I'll trust your judgment on how far they can handle themselves. Just try to keep them safe discreetly."

"Of course sir." said the ANBU as he faded into the wooden floorboards of the office floor.

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"Ok, so all I saw was destroy a nation of steal something, and I didn't look too closely beyond that. So, what exactly are we doing, yeah?" asked Deidara as she and her partner flew through the sky on a clay owl. It wasn't exactly the fasted thing she had ever made, but they were in no hurry.

"The job is to destroy a the Land of Honey's royal family. Take them out and cripple the military, and the whole nation will be easily conquered by our clients. In this case a larger nation that wants their territory." responded Naruto, not really surprised that Deidara hadn't actually read the details of the mission. It was part of her strange charm.

"Land of Honey, huh?" said Deidara, more to herself than to Naruto. "That's like, three days away from the hideout, two if we fly like this, yeah?"

Naruto cracked open one eye, but otherwise didn't move from his meditative stance. "Yes, it is, though I don't see where you're going with this."

"Isn't the Land of Honey that way from the hideout?" asked Deidara, pointing back the way they had been flying for over a day.

This time Naruto moved an arm to place his face in his palm as he sighed. "Dang it." If anyone looked up, they would see a large white bird turning around.

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"So what are we going with? Choji bashes down the gates with his Human Boulder? No, we're trying not to be spotted… I got it! Ino's Mind Transfer? Maybe coupled with your Shadow Possession, am I right? I'm right" said Sora as he looked sideways at the leader of the squad. He nodded at the end of his speculative rant, as if to confirm his suspicions. He tilted his head sideways in confusion as he continued. "Though I don't see why the king of the jerks and I are here. _Do_ you plan to just blow down the doors and kill everyone but the target?"

"No, Sasuke is here because he's on a team with Ino, whose Mind Transfer _will_ come into play. You two will also be handy to have around if things go south. But the real key players are you and Choji." answered Shikamaru as he got up from his thinking pose.

"What? You're entrusting the key role to those two buffoons?" exclaimed Sakura. She gestured to the blue haired boy in particular, who was in the process of making faces at his stoic rival. "We might as well just head back now and say the mission was a failure."

"Hold on. I never said it was a complicated role, just a key one." said Shikamaru. "The goal is to use an annual eating competition as a distraction while we remove the young lord. An eating competition will be much more interesting to watch with these two participating, don't you think?"

"I'll go along with this plan. You know what you're doing." spoke up Sasuke, and his two female teammates were quick to agree, then disagree about who was the first to agree.

"We know you're a genius, so just point us in the right direction." said Sora, pointing over his shoulder to Choji, who nodded in agreement.

"Good. I'll explain each of your roles in greater detail when we get to that point. Right now, Choji and Sora have to register for the competition. I'd hurry, since registration closes in an hour." said Shikamaru, catching the look on his teammate's face when they heard about being only an hour away from losing as much food as they could eat. As an Akimichi, Choji converted his calories and stored fat directly into chakra for his techniques. This had turned into a love of eating, as using even a single technique left the rotund genin feeling incredibly hungry. Sora on the other hand had no such excuse, he just ate massive quantities of any food he found delicious. His claim that everyone else was just bad at eating didn't convince anyone, but it appeared that the two's love of food would come in handy on this mission. "Just know that for the plan to work, one of you has to come in second place."

"Any plan that involves food is fine by me. Let's go Sora!" shouted Choji. The two shouted a loud huzzah in unison before running into the city proper. Shikamaru sighed at his team, before he turned to the other three genin he had been placed in charge of. Team Seven looked at him skeptically, but held back any chatter.

"Alright, Ino you're with me. Sasuke and Sakura, you find a hotel for us to stay at. The competition lasts for two days, and we may need to take a third to get everyone back together. Make it out of the way enough to hide a body, but close enough to the courtyard that we won't have far to go. Got it?"

"Hmph. As if I would screw up something as simple as that. Should we meet you after the room is booked?" inquired Sasuke.

"No. I'll need your Sharingan for the plan tomorrow, but take it easy today and lay low." answered Shikamaru.

"Understood." said the members of Team Seven. The rookies scattered to enact Shikamaru's plan.

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"Seriously, I love all my art, but this owl is so slow, yeah!" exclaimed Deidara to her partner as they slowly drifted through the skies. "Just let me make a hawk, and we'll be there by tomorrow morning."

"I'm a sage Deidara. Sages are supposed to be wise. Owls are wise. Ergo, a sage should arrive on an owl." answered Naruto calmly, confident in his logic.

"For someone so wise you really aren't all that smart. We'll be arriving in the capital to DESTROY EVERYTHING. I don't think anyone will care if you arrive on an owl. And this owl will take us another two days. Let me make a faster bird already." argued Deidara.

"No. Someone might care what we arrive on. We're S-Rank ninjas Deidara, we can't be seen as hyperactive kids who rush around everywhere. Besides, it's not like the Land of Honey is going anywhere. It'll be there in two days as surely as it will be there tomorrow." retorted Naruto.

Deidara sighed into her hand before an idea came. "What about a compromise. A dragon would be faster than this owl, but not as fast as a hawk, and something so big would show more power. Plus, I hear dragons live forever, so it'll be plenty wise as well. What do you say?"

"That is a brilliant idea!" exclaimed Naruto as he jumped to his feet. "Let's do this!"

Deidara pulled out a large chunk of clay in each hand. In order to make a large enough dragon, she'd have to use both chunks. After infusing it with her special blend of explosive chakra, Deidara slapped her hands together. She always hated this part. She could never get over the feeling of being French kissed as the two hand mouths worked together to shape the clay. Still, true art required sacrifice.

The dragon finally emerged, and Deidara threw it off the side of the owl the two were currently riding on. A large cloud of smoke accompanied Deidara's hand seal, and a large white dragon rose from underneath the two Akatsuki members. They jumped off of the owl and landed on the dragon, which then began flying at a much faster pace than the owl had been.

"You were right Deidara. This dragon will leave a much better impression." said Naruto as he resumed his meditation.

"Glad I could help." mumbled the blonde artist, rolling an eye for emphasis even though Naruto couldn't see it.

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Choji and Sora looked at the massive piles of bean jam cakes piled before them, then looked at each other, then back at the food. The official in charge blew a whistle, and the food began flying into their mouths. Choji and Sora were digging in with the best of them, and all they had to do was finish the plate within the time limit. For the next several minutes, the two genin were in heaven.

"Well, they're doing their job rather well." deadpanned Ino. Shikamaru and Ino were hiding on the roof the gatehouse that overlooked the courtyard where the competition was taking place. The first section of the challenge was solely for observation and identifying the targets. "What is my part in all this going to be, now that we have time to chat?"

"See that little kid over there?" asked Shikamaru, gesturing to a young child in the spectators' box alongside a small girl and an older man who was clearly the Lord of the Land of Honey. Looking closer, she could also see a grizzled samurai standing guard in the shadows. "He's the young lord we're trying to recover. Near the end of the finals, you'll use your Mind Transfer to get him alone. The bodyguard will follow to make sure he trying to make a break for it, but Sasuke's Sharingan should be able to catch him in a genjutsu long enough to get him out of the way."

"What, you mean kill him?" asked Ino, incredulous that her childhood friend could be so heartless.

"No. The point of not being seen is to leave no evidence. A corpse would point to ninja, and the Hidden Leaf is the only possible suspect within the area that would be hired." pointed out Shikamaru. "No, a genjutsu is the answer here as well. I just hope Sasuke can handle such delicate work."

"Of course Sasuke can handle this. He could handle anything! Though delicacy isn't exactly his strong suit…" admitted Ino. "But Sasuke can definitely do it!"

"Let's hope he can, or this entire plan will fall apart." muttered Shikamaru.

Sora and Choji were oblivious to all of this, and were pressuring the referee to give them some more ramen before that phase of the competition. When he explained that they'd have to wait until tomorrow, the two undercover genin looked absolutely crushed, but quickly perked up at the thought of more food tomorrow.

The group met at the hotel Sasuke and Sakura had picked out, which fit Shikamaru's specifications perfectly. The plan was relayed to everyone, even the two that would just be eating. The only requirement of them was that one of them win second place, in order to get the runner up prize. Sakura voiced concerns for the sanity of a man that would give a house for first place, and a large basket for second place and a small basket for third. Shikamaru responded that the sanity, or lack thereof, of such prizes was inconsequential, all that mattered was that those were the prizes. The young lord would be snuck out inside the large wicker basket, which Choji or Sora would take upon winning second place. The two would exit with the young lord, still inside his basket, after the competition, just some country folk who had come in for the free food. The genius of this plan was its simplicity. Shikamaru only hoped that the simplicity made it easy to pull off, and didn't make it transparent as a glass wall.

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"So after we catch a jinchuriki, what do we even do?" asked Deidara, sitting in a thinking position as their dragon lazily soared through the skies. "I mean, I know we need them alive, yeah. But why?"

"We seal their tailed beasts. It kills the jinchuriki, but we need them alive until then, otherwise it won't work." answered Naruto, opening his toad-like eyes and cracking his neck. "A Tailed Beast won't stay sealed inside a dead host. If the seal is weak enough, you'll be fighting a full powered Tailed Beast. If' it's too strong, the Tailed Beast 'dies' and has to reform. The stronger the beast, the longer that process takes."

"I know that, yeah. I listened to Leader's briefings." shot back Deidara, annoyed at her partner's low opinion of her intelligence. "I meant _how_ do we seal them? Do we have, like, a big jar or something?"

Naruto was actually stumped by this question, as Pain had not yet told any of them how they were to actually seal the Tailed Beasts once they were acquired. And Naruto was sagely enough to admit when he didn't know. "I actually have no idea. Maybe we seal them in a jar or something." he speculated. "Maybe we just chain it to the ground."

"That's kinda fun sounding actually, yeah. It'd be like a zoo. We just walk up and give the Nine Tails some steak or eat some calamari right in front of the Eight Tails. We could stand on their heads and pretend to be controlling them…" said Deidara, imaging riding on the head of the Nine Tails like the legendary Madara Uchiha. "I wonder if their fur is soft, yeah."

"Who knows? We'll find out when we start sealing them." shrugged Naruto, before sitting upright and turned to face his partner, a wide smile on his face. "Let's agree to find out as soon as we can. We can't hunt jinchuriki for three more years thanks to Kisame killing his target, but as soon as those three years are up, we take out your target as fast as we can. Deal?"

"Sound like a plan, yeah. Deal." agreed Deidara. Her target, the One Tail, would be the first down.

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Tatewaki had been left the samurai of the Land of Iron, not for any lack of skill, but because he simply could not bear to continue living in the land where his master had died any longer. He had become a wandering mercenary, and found his way into the Feudal Lord of the Land of Honey's employ. His duties only technically consisted of watching over the safety of the Lord and his daughter Chiyo, but he had recently taken up a new duty as well. He played the role of both bodyguard and watcher of Shu, a young lord who had been kidnapped from his own land and was being held here for political reasons that Tatewaki didn't care to know about. He felt bad for Shu, both because he was a child and because kidnapping went against everything he had learnt as a samurai. But orders were orders, and following orders was something else he had learned as a samurai.

The eating contest, despite its conceptual idiocy and security risks, proved to be something Tatewaki was enjoying. Mainly because Shu was enjoying it, especially the apparent rivalry between two of the contestants, who were no older than Shu was. The blue haired one had less of the frenzy that his rival had about him, but still managed to keep pace with the chunkier brown haired boy that was his main competition. The two had easily blown through the preliminaries, and were dominating the finals. Despite the seemingly mundane task of eating being the main spectacle here, the seriousness with which it was treated by the two boys and their fellow competitors made it rather interesting to watch.

Which made Tatewaki suspicious when Shu suddenly stiffened before declaring he had to use the restroom. This in itself wasn't odd, but the finals were drawing to a close, and it was a tight race. Shu had seemed incredibly excited to see who emerged victorious, but suddenly dropped all emotion for a second and made an excuse to leave. It didn't add up in Tatewaki's book, and when something didn't add up, a samurai knew that ninja were somehow involved. Perhaps it was some strange mind technique that could be employed remotely, but no ninja, mind trick or not, would get past him to Shu.

Tatewaki silently slipped out of the royal booth, as was his duty as silent protector, and followed the young lord to what appeared to be not a restroom, but a theater room. He entered the room right behind Shu, the door blocking his view for a split second, but that was enough for the young boy to disappear. Tatewaki knew something was amiss and drew his katana, getting into a ready stance and looking around for Shu, or anyone else for that matter.

"Look behind you, fool." Tatewaki was surprised by the mocking voice that rang out behind him. He did as the voice said and turned around, but had his sword already coming down in an overhead slice that would cleave the speaker in half. He never got the chance however, as the act of turning brought him face to face with a disembodied pair of blood red eyes. Three black dots swirled in each eye, and Tatewaki felt himself losing control of his own body. Then he felt nothing.

Tatewaki opened his eyes to find himself back in the booth watching the eating competition's end. The blue haired boy had come out just ahead of the chubbier boy. The only person missing was Shu. Tatewaki began to shout out an order to find the boy, but stopped just as suddenly. '_Shu went back to his chambers._' supplied his mind. '_He was feeling ill, so I escorted him there and then set up a guard._" The voice in his head didn't sound quite right, but Tatewaki decided to trust himself for the time being, but he firmly decided to check up on Shu the moment he received a plausible excuse to remove himself from the presence of a Feudal Lord. Which looked like it would be soon, as the competitors were leaving, all but the blue haired boy, who seemed fidgety and nervous, but he was a teenager from the country meeting royalty, so nerves were understandable. He would spend the night in the palace with the accountants and such, settling legal matters with the prize house form the contest. In all likelihood, he would sell the house and take the money back home to the country the next day, but he would still be rich and have a great story.

Tatewaki escorted Chiyo and her father to their rooms, after clearing the insides of any intruders, and left to check up on Shu, he could only hope that Shu was still in there. While his mind continued to affirm the truth of the matter, he could not help but doubt himself. His fears were well founded.

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Shikamaru walked away from the village with his squad, sans Sora, Choji carrying a large and heavy wicker basket. The basket in fact contained the young lord the group had been tasked with recovering. Sora would stay behind to draw any suspicion away from him and Choji leaving immediately after the contest when they had won first and second. He would sell the house and catch up with them the next day, hopefully with a large bonus to go around. The group set up camp a ways outside the capital city, so Sora wouldn't have as far to catch up.

The sun was setting, and the group had taken the seamless execution of the plan as grounds to relax. Shikamaru couldn't blame them, the hardest parts were over and they should be relieved. But they couldn't afford to relax entirely. No good ninja ever should. They were cooking dinner over the fire when proof that they had let their guard down too far occurred. Sasuke was sitting on a log near the fire, his two teammates arguing over who got to sit next to him. Choji was lying up against a tree, completely full for once in his life, and Shikamaru was marveling that his plan had worked and worrying for Sora's wellbeing.

Then the ambient light from the setting sun was blocked out by a large creature flying overhead. When the genin, and one chunin, looked up, they saw what appeared to be a large pale dragon flying overhead. They ran to the edge of the forest, a hill that overlooked the city, and saw hundreds of small specks fall off the distant dragon. The dispersed across the city, going on their own power most of the way. Then the capital city of the Land of Honey exploded. In the span of one second, it had gone from a thriving and sleepy city to a flaming nightmare. Sasuke and Shikamaru shared a look, and an unspoken understanding passed between them. Shikamaru grabbed Choji and Ino, pulling them back into the woods.

Sakura looked uncertainly at Sasuke and spoke up as the dragon began spitting out smaller beasts that created larger explosions that only seemed to increase the screams coming from the city, if that were possible. "Sasuke? What should we do?"

"You go with Shikamaru, I have to get Sora out of there. Whoever that is isn't concerned with anyone in particular it seems, so I'll go in, grab the moron, and get out." said Sasuke as he ran down the hill to the city full speed, Sharingan blazing.

Sasuke navigated the city at the same speed. A lesser ninja would have had to slow down to avoid explosions and debris and the like, but lesser ninja didn't have the Sharingan. He found his way to the castle with little trouble., but was stopped from jumping over the wall by what appeared to be a large frog wearing armor. The beast had grabbed his leg with its tongue and pulled him violently back down to earth. Sasuke's incredulousness rose even further as the frog then spoke to him. "Sorry, didn't realize that wouldn't kill you. I'm a klutz like my dad, but I'll try to make it quick."

Sasuke quickly got over his shock by thinking of the amphibian as just an enemy to be defeated. He quickly slid underneath the thing's chin and delivered a powerful upwards kick. As a creature that specialized in jumping large distances straight up, the toad was hardly fazed. It was more fazed when Sasuke appeared above it and slammed it back down into the ground with another powerful kick. Sasuke used the momentum from his kick to propel himself over the wall and landed gracefully. He opened his eyes only to cringe in horror at the carnage that was all around him. Bodies had exploded in macabre splatters of blood, while others were cleanly bisected or had holes punched right through them. More were burned in a large pile, and the flames had spread to the castle proper, illuminating the night with a golden light that seemed far more innocent than it deserved to. Sasuke ran into the castle, hoping against hope that he wasn't too late.

The first thing he noticed when he entered the antechamber was that the large metal door that guarded the Feudal Lord's throne room were knocked down, one had a blast mark on it, and the other was deeply dented. The second thing he noticed were the moving bodies beyond the collapsed doors. He ran forward, hoping that one of the two figures was Sora, but he stopped short as he noticed what the two were wearing. The black cloaks adorned with red clouds were exactly as Sora and Shikamaru had described them, only covered in blood and gore. Their blonde hair, one done up in a ponytail and the other in loosely kept spikes, further identified them as the members of Akatsuki that had defeated not only Team Ten, but Asuma and Kurenai as well, apparently without breaking a sweat.

Looking past them, as if he could, Sasuke was ecstatic to see Sora alive and well, standing alongside the samurai he had fooled earlier in the day with his Sharingan's genjutsu. The two stood side by side, almost obscuring the small girl behind them, fearfully clutching a naginata. The two Akatsuki members hadn't appeared to have noticed him yet, so he ran forward, the boards cracking underfoot as he ran through hand seals. Feet away, his hand was engulfed in blue lightning and the air was filled with the screeching of a thousand birds. As he ran, his left hand intent on impaling the heart of the longer haired blonde, he shouted the name of his jutsu, the A-rank assassination jutsu passed down by Kakashi of the Sharingan, one of three people on the face of the planet left with the legendary bloodline. "**CHIDORI!**"

His Sharingan proved a curse then, as he could see every second in slow motion and had it engraved into his memory forever. His hand was stopped short of the Akatsuki member's back by the right hand of the other one. The man's grip was crushing, and thought he sheer proximity to the Chidori caused minor burns on his skin, those healed before Sasuke's very eyes as they appeared. Sasuke knew he was completely outclassed when the blonde who couldn't possibly be more than five years his senior spoke for the first time. "Impudent fool." The insult was accompanied by a large force that pulled him off his feet and slammed him into the ground in front of the two dangerous ninja.

"Sasuke!" Sasuke was vaguely aware of Sora voicing his concern, but his spinning head had only heard the word spoken by the Akatsuki member that was looking down at him.

"I guess the sharingan doesn't make a ninja great. It must only be Itachi's innate skill that makes him so powerful. If I were him, I'd be ashamed to call you my brother." the mere mention of Itachi would have normally sent Sasuke flying into a murderous rage at the person who would dare compare him to his treacherous brother. But this man had just sent Sasuke sprawling, and he could barely move, let alone fight. "Still, he wishes to kill you himself, so I'll let you live to fight another day. But don't show up with these paltry skills, or he won't even have to open his eyes." The Akatsuki member's foot came down at Sasuke's stunned face, and he fell into unconsciousness.

Naruto turned to the jinchuriki and the samurai that were guarding the last member of the royal family. "We aren't able to capture you at the moment Nine Tails, so step aside and we'll let you take you Uchiha friend and leave."

"And let you murder this girl, no way!" shouted Sora at the two Akatsuki members that were assigned to capture him. "I'll die before I let you kill a defenseless little girl!"

"Ha! How many do you think my art got, yeah?" asked Deidara, doubled over with fake laughter as she faced her partner. She straightened up and turned back to Sora. "We're S-Rank missing ninja who get employed for war. If you want us to stop killing, you'll have to kill us, and that's not happening."

Sora's clever and stubborn retort was cut off by Naruto's controlled 'combat' voice. "Let's go Deidara."

"What?! There's only two left, and we can capture your target while we're at it. Why would we want to leave?" exclaimed Deidara, incredulous that he would give up so easily.

"We aren't allowed to capture him at this point, unless you'd rather go against Leader. And if we fight, he'll fight to the death. Leader wouldn't bother telling us off then, he'd just kill us outright." said Naruto to his partner before turning to the three other conscious people in the room. "If the princess over there disappears, she can live. If she presses her claim to rule, we come back and finish the job. Let's go." The two Akatsuki members turned and began to walk away.

Tatewaki, however, was a samurai. And his samurai training had instilled in him a deep sense of honor. He would not allow this threat to leave unchallenged and alive. It was his duty to fight and kill these monsters before they could kill more innocent people. Bolstered by these thoughts, Tatewaki channeled chakra down the length of his sword to increase its cutting potential and swung downwards at the neck of the one who was obviously the leader. His sword connected, and the excess chakra slashed through even the ground below, kicking up a cloud of dust and debris.

"Shame about your choice." rang out an irritated voice. Tatewaki's eyes widened in shock as the dust settled and he saw that his sword hadn't decapitated the Akatsuki member. Instead, his katana was stopped at the junction of shoulder and neck, having not even penetrated the skin. The blonde turned his head, and Tatewaki got his first clear look at his opponent's golden, toad-like eyes. "Shame, but not even an inconvenience."

The end of his sentence was punctuated by his right elbow shooting back. It made solid contact, but hurt far more than a blow of that speed should have. Tatewaki felt as though the wind had been knocked out of him by a sledgehammer, not an elbow. As he doubled over in pain, the elbow that had been jammed into his abdomen came up and delivered an equally devastating blow to his head. Tatewaki went flying head over heels and landed face down on the wooden floor. As he struggled to get back up, he saw one foot poking out of a black and red cloak. Any thought of where the other foot was ended as the foot in question came down on top of his head. This third blow would be the last one, and Tatewaki died inside the crater the drop kick had created.

Naruto turned again and jumped onto one of the clay hawks Deidara had made for them, before turning back as he sensed something strangely familiar. His stomach began to ache, but that was easily solved by channeling more natural chakra to the area of his seal. When he turned around, he saw the pseudo-jinchuriki of the Nine Tails looking back at him, slitted pupils glaring back from blood red eyes. In his left hand were the claws that he used to fight, only now they were unconsciously lengthened to several feet. His right hand was holding back the little princess, who was screaming as she tried to get to Tatewaki's body.

Naruto decided to encourage his fellow holder of the Nine Tails to better take his place before he left. "If you want to be worth our coming to get you, learn to become the weapon you meant to be. Beating the Nine Tails will be better reputation than beating its worthless jinchuriki anyway."

Sora growled under his breath as the two blondes that had decided to make his life hell left with the promise to return once they were ready for his corpse. He finally let the young girl, who he'd learned was called Chiyo, run to her protector's body to cry. He walked over to Sasuke's battered and unconscious body to heave his rival up over his shoulder. He could only wonder who this Itachi guy was, but if he was in Akatsuki and had it out for Sasuke, the last Uchiha would have to become much stronger. He walked up to the crying princess carrying his classmate, and could only put his arm on her shoulder in comfort.

"We should get out of here. He would have wanted you to be safe." said Sora sadly. His own emotions were a tangled mess, but he had to keep it together as the mature one. He began walking with the girl not far behind him to find his teammates and go home.

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Sasuke regained consciousness on the way back, but Sora still had to steady him to keep the Uchiha upright. Chiyo followed in complete silence the whole way. They met up with the others three hours into their slow limp. Ino was the first one to spot them, as she was on guard duty, and quickly alerted the others. As leader of the mission, Shikamaru swallowed the lump in his throat to debrief Sasuke. "What happened?" Despite his attempts to keep his voice level and in control, his voice cracked halfway through the simple question.

"Akatsuki." Sora was the one to respond, as he had been there during their assault of the capital and the massacre of everyone who tried to resist. "The blonde one from before and his partner. We never stood a chance."

The mention of the dreaded organization and the specific member who had put him in a genjutsu induced coma for over a month was enough to make Shikamaru, and to a lesser extent Choji, freeze up in terror. Ino and Sakura however, had no idea who Akatsuki was, other than someone who could beat up Sasuke and destroy a city. They weren't any less scared at the concept than Shikamaru and Choji were; the only difference was personal experience with the missing ninjas. Sora was the one to break the scared silence. "He said they weren't allowed to hunt me for a while, but they can't kill me until then. I don't know how long we have until they come for me, but we should get this mission done with and go home." Shikamaru could only nod in agreement. The group cleaned up their camp with the fervor that comes with fear and panic, before heading back home to the Hidden Leaf.

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**A/N: Chapter six up! Wooo! This part was literally the only thing other than the Search for Tsunade arc Akatsuki appears in before Shippuden, and it's anime filler. The actual name of the country they were fighting in was the Land of This. You can see why I changed it. The humor interludes with Deidara nd Naruto were for humor, and to show that sometimes Naruto takes being a 'sage' a tad too far. This is the last chapter before the time skip. Things will start to deviate slightly until after the Kakuzu and Hidan arc, where I plan to seriously derail canon. The jinchuriki fights are ones I'm really looking forward to. I have some awesome stuff planned out for those. There weren't many questions in the reviews, but to those asking when I'll update, I've been doing it on Saturdays and have no plans to change. That said, I hope you enjoyed and reviews are always welcome. See ya**


	7. Chapter 7

Dawn's Sage

Chapter 7

It had been three years since Kisame and Itachi had slipped up and accidently killed the Three Tails. The beast had no doubt reformed by this point, and Sasori and Zetsu had their spy networks working overtime to try and find it. Until then, Akatsuki was free to gather Tailed Beasts once more; with the threat of a painful death delivered by god himself should they delay the plan further. Deidara and Naruto decided to be the first ones to capture one of their targets, and so had struck out to the Hidden Sand, where Sasori had informed them the One Tail jinchuriki had actually been appointed Kazekage. Hopefully the knowledge that the jinchuriki was S-rank would offset the lack of respect that being the One Tail jinchuriki would get from the other members of Akatsuki. After all, this was all about proving themselves.

"Do you have all the clay you'll need?" asked Naruto, almost worriedly, but covered with a mask of calm.

"Yeah, yeah." Deidara paused, as she realized what she had just said. She shook her head and continued. "I've even got some pre-sculpted art ready to go. When I let loose C3, they won't be able to _find_ the Village Hidden in the Sand."

"Fine, as long as you're careful. We can't both fight on two separate birds, and both of us on one would be too slow. I won't be able to help you up in the sky. I'll make good our escape, but that won't mean anything if you die." chided Naruto.

"Alright, I get it!" exclaimed Deidara. "Fight the jinchuriki, don't kill him, get out."

"With the jinchuriki." added Naruto.

"That's implied!" said Deidara. "I have more than enough clay, and I won't need all of it. It's not like he can fly, yeah?"

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As it turned out, he could fly. Or at least his sand could, which amounted to the same thing.

Infiltrating the village had been a snap. A quick bit of high altitude flying had gotten them over the walls, and unlike the Hidden Leaf, the Hidden Sand had no barrier seal to detect intruders. Sasori's spy network had come through once again, and Naruto jumped off of the bird as they passed over the walls. Hopefully right after the guard changed shifts for the night to give Deidara as much time as possible.

The ninja watching the skies had been few, and were easily dispatched with several precision bombs. Deidara assumed that any fight that involved her, fighting a Kage or not, would draw the attention of the entire village. Not really seeing a need for subtlety, she rarely did, Deidara decided to throw down the gauntlet by bombing the Kazekage's mansion. Before her small flock of exploding geese could make contact with the building however, the wall they were aimed at seemingly came off and engulfed her art. The explosions came out more as dull thuds, instead of the destructive sledgehammers they were supposed to be. Deidara looked away from her failed bombing attempt and was surprised to see a red haired teenager standing opposite her on a floating platform of sand.

The boy could only be the Kazekage, or some boy who matched the target exactly and had stolen the Kazekage hat. Looking at it closer, it was a stupid hat. Deidara would give the most basic right to be transformed into art though; it was a right she extended to everything. Except jinchuriki, she had to take those alive. Deidara was taken from her mental meandering by the large stream of sand that shot towards her from the mass of grains in front of the Kazekage. As she absent-mindedly sent her hawk into a steep dive to avoid it, she continued thinking about the kid she was supposed to capture, and later kill. He was quite the looker, but she was out of his league anyway, in more ways than one. It would still be a shame to rob him from the girls of his village. Maybe she'd leave them the hat. It looked stupid anyway.

Deidara finished justifying the mutilation of the Kazekage, and looked up to see a massive face looking back at her, mouth wide as her bird hurtled towards it. She pulled up, and the mouth reached up to snap at her. She pulled up, and quickly spun to the side to dodge the stream of sand from before. She had heard what the Kazekage could do with his sand, and she knew if she was caught in it, she was done for. She tossed her right hand out, and the two birds inside it came to life and sprinted for the Kazekage from opposite directions. The sand beneath him shot up from both sides and blocked the birds, which exploded anyway.

The sand retreated back to ominously float around its red haired master, and Deidara pulled up across from him. She had gathered that he wasn't one to talk, so she was slightly surprised when he deigned to do so. "I have been warned of Akatsuki and their intentions towards me. But know that as Kazekage, I cannot lose."

"Cool, yeah. I get to be the second member of Akatsuki to kill a Kage!" shouted Deidara, emphasizing the point with a small, four-winged bird that went flying from her left hand. She had perhaps hoped that the bird would prove faster than the sand and defeat the Kazekage then and there, but she wasn't overly annoyed when the sand came up to block the bird and succeeded. After all, the smoke from the failed explosion concealed the first bird's twin that had emerged from her right hand moments later. The Kazekage would lower his sand to try and keep an eye on her, and the second bird would swoop in and detonate. Naruto had been worrying too much when he had insisted she bring a third bag of clay.

The second bird swooped around the edge of the sand shield to dodge any remnants, and Deidara was shocked to see a large mass of sand move to the left to block her second bird as well. She growled under her breath at the sight, which came with the knowledge that this might not be as easy as she had first thought. Responding to the Kazekage's emotionless gaze, the sand began to chase Deidara across the sky once again. Their game of cat and mouse got more complicated when ballista began to fire bolts into the sky at her as well. The spiked poles were easily dodged, but the explosive notes that fragmented the metal tips into shrapnel were more frustrating to avoid, and the sand constantly trying to catch her in a bear hug wasn't helping matters.

Luckily, her attention was free to focus on the Kazekage, as a blonde blur was down below, burning the anti-air defenses to a crisp along with anyone manning them. The Kazekage's expressionless gaze contorted to one of anger as he saw his people being killed, and Deidara saw a tendril of sand shoot out to catch her partner down below. "Oh no you don't, yeah!" shouted Deidara, as more four-winged art flew quickly at her opponent, forcing him to recall his sand. "I'M you opponent here!"

The Kazekage was more than glad to try and vent his frustrations on her.

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Naruto had decided to spare Deidara some clay and trouble by destroying the ballista that had been firing at her in the sky. Apparently, the Kazekage _could_ fly, though Naruto had faith that Deidara could handle it. That faith wouldn't stop him from coating the ballista in a healthy amount of oil, followed by an unhealthy amount of flames. He had already finished preparing the surprise for anyone who decided to follow them out of the village. Unfortunately, his arson and murder had drawn the attention of several ninja in the area. He wasn't overly worried about killing them, but he had hoped to take a break and store up chakra for the sealing later. He still had no clue how Akatsuki planned to seal the Tailed Beasts, but he was sure that it would require chakra.

Chakra he would have to waste on the three ninja before him. One was wearing a jonin flak jacket from the Hidden Sand, and had half of his face covered by some sort of drape. The other male was strange. Whatever idiot decided to wear all black and carry three heavy scrolls in the desert deserved to be congratulated for surviving this long. He wouldn't be surviving much longer. The third was the only girl of the group, and had her straw blonde hair done up in what appeared to be four different pony tails. Her large war fan told all that she was a large area wind jutsu user. The three monsters that came out of the stupid one's scrolls were similar to Sasori's puppets, and Naruto finally understood his ridiculous get up. It was still stupid, but the puppet user was apparently supposed to be some sort of bunraku puppeteer.

The three looked around the flaming rooftops where Naruto had loosed his devastation in horror, before focusing on the cause in anger. The first to attack was the girl, swinging her fan in a wide arc. The sweep sent out a wave of slicing air, but the blades were so dispersed and weak that Naruto was just able to stand there and take it like a gentle breeze. The second to move was the idiot, or more specifically his puppets. The two human shaped ones shot forward, clacking the whole way in a manner that rather made Naruto want to smash them to bits. After circling him pointlessly, they loosed a barrage of senbon and kunai which, while no doubt poisoned and lethal, bounced off Naruto like he was a brick wall. One of the puppets sprouted six arms and moved to attack with blades that emerged from the inside of the arms. Naruto sensed the other puppet come up behind him, chest cavity open wide to swallow him whole, and smashed the worthless puppet to pieces with a single punch backwards. The first puppet caught him in bear hug, but the blades all shattered harmlessly. The puppet quickly went the way of the first, but the pieces floated back together in front of the puppeteer.

The girl bit her thumb and drew it across her fan, which Naruto could only assume was some unorthodox summoning contract. The first thing to emerge was a paper lantern that was followed by some pirate weasel wielding a scythe in its mouth. If he didn't sense the enormous and focused amounts of wind chakra applied to the blade, Naruto would feel like cuddling with the adorable little thing. Before the small beast could chop off his head, or at least attempt to, Naruto jumped forward and brought his legs into a tight curl to dodge the blade of wind that passed harmlessly over him. Naruto delivered a powerful mule kick that certainly broke several ribs, as well a pulp some organs, to the jonin that had tried to sneak up on him. The intense pain broke his concentration on the weak genjutsu that had taken his place over by the other two while the puppets had attacked Naruto.

The weasel was still quickly approaching Naruto however. The ridiculous one's large puppet, an armor type if he remembered Sasori correctly, had also breathed a stream of flames into the blast of wind, making it even more deadly. Naruto ran through several hand seals in midair as he continued through his kick. He finished as he landed, and slammed his palm on the ground. The weasel's scythe shattered upon contact with the stone toad statue that Naruto had summoned beneath him. The burning, cutting wave of death was right behind it, and Naruto could feel the heat coming off of it. He could have taken the blow easily, but his Akatsuki cloak, while durable, wasn't invincible. And while bearing their attack head on would be impressive, continuing the fight in the nude would be considerably less so.

Naruto decided to have some fun and show these impudent fools what a real wind jutsu was and ran through the hand seals for one of his favorites. "**Sage Art: Wind Style: Bunker Buster!**" Naruto's cheeks expanded as he mixed the three chakras and converted it into wind natured sage chakra. Seeing the jutsu spit out of his mouth, the puppeteer beckoned to the blonde girl, and the two hid inside his remaining puppet, confirming Naruto's suspicion that it was an armor type puppet. Not that that wasn't exactly what he had been counting on.

The ball of wind chakra hurtled towards the large armored puppet, but Naruto only smiled in assured victory. The Bunker Buster was a jutsu he had developed specifically for destroying enemies in enclosed spaces that were thought to be safe. The jutsu performed its function perfectly, as it punched a hole clean through the metal shield to enter the safe area. Naruto appreciated the reaction time of the two inside, as the wind hadn't even fully penetrated the armor before it opened and the two started to jump out. It was quick, but ultimately useless. The second stage of the jutsu activated then, expanding rapidly and violently, theoretically crushing everything inside the bunker against the very walls that were supposed to keep them safe. It was a technique designed for small spaces, so the open air made it far less lethal, and in reality it only stunned the two jonin and sent them flying.

Naruto resolved to finish the job and head back to the rendezvous with Deidara. After all, the other members of Akatsuki would no doubt be moving in on their targets. Naruto was looking forward to interrupting them with news of their juniors' success. Naruto even planned to tell Sasori to hurry up with his own capture, and maybe throw in an art comment, just to piss off the puppeteer.

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The battle in the skies was considerably less one-sided. The Kazekage had certainly earned his title, though Deidara was willing to guess his defensive skill was his strong point. Even with the red head sparing glances to check up on Naruto's clash below, Deidara had to use more clay than she would like to even keep his attention on her. And he had still blocked every single one! It was like the sand moved of its own accord to protect him.

That last thought gave Deidara an idea. An awful idea. Deidara got a wonderful, _awful_ idea. She had been focusing on the Kazekage as her opponent, but if the sand was autonomous, the sand was her real opponent. The Kazekage just controlled it. And if he could get it to hang around him and block her bombs, he was the only who could get it away from himself. She continued the complex aerial maneuvers that had kept her out of the realm of certain death as she prepared a lot of smaller clay birds. She loosed the bombs, and the Kazekage's sand pulled up around him, but suddenly stopped when he saw where the birds were headed.

The Kazekage's eyes widened in fear, not for himself, but for the innocent spectators that were Deidara's real targets this time. He was forced to rely on a large amount of sand from the desert ground to prevent the explosions from leveling a good portion of the city. To Deidara's eternal ire, the sand still had enough speed left to block the four winged bird that she had sent straight at the Kazekage. But the sand had definitely been sluggish. She just needed to take more of his concentration. As much as she hated to resort to such extreme measures, it would appear she would have to bring out the big art.

"Guess you value their lives pretty highly." Deidara shouted over to the Kazekage, who glowered in return. Unperturbed, Deidara continued to bait the Kazekage. "Let's see if you value their lives above yours." Deidara pulled out one of her pre-made sculptures, a bell shaped masterpiece, adorned with wings and face of artistic despair. Realistic? Not at all. True art? It would be in a moment.

The already large sculpture grew to enormous proportions on its descent to the middle of the village when Deidara made the first seal. The second seal was the signal to detonate. The Kazekage lifted his arms sharply into the sky as the large mass of art Deidara had affectionately dubbed C3 exploded into a brilliant ball of flaming death. The brilliant light was blinding to Deidara's uncovered eye, but her eye scope easily filtered the light, allowing her to use the distracting explosion to launch her second, smaller and faster, piece of art at the Kazekage. If he hadn't used his sand to block the massive bomb below, Deidara had no illusions that her most recent bomb would have no luck at all. The Hidden Sand would be gone, but the Kazekage would be fine.

But if there was one thing she had learned as the Tsuchikage's apprentice, other than the fact that old people didn't understand art, it was that the village came first. Her suspicions were confirmed as her she heard her bird exploded against within a foot of the Kazekage's chest, blocked by only a few grains of sand. The light faded, and Deidara could better see the massive shield of sand that the Kazekage had used to completely block her C3. She looked over at the red head to make sure he was out of it before moving in to capture him. Deidara was shocked to see him not only airborne, but clinging to consciousness and trying to manipulate his sand again. At first Deidara looked around in terror to find the sand that was no doubt attempting to crush her at the moment, but she then noticed that he was actually moving the mass of sand away from its current position above the village.

He was actually trying to keep the sand from falling on the village and hurting people. Deidara was awestruck that he would go to such lengths to keep his village safe. She could respect that, and took the struggle to move the sand as an unspoken last request. With great effort, the Kazekage moved his sand outside of the village's outskirts and finally allowed it to fall. Deidara's bird flew underneath the young village leader and caught him out of his freefall. He was quickly wrapped up inside the tail feathers of the clay mount, and Deidara flew off to meet up with Naruto. She let out a sigh of relief, and though she wouldn't admit it, she was glad Naruto had convinced her to bring more clay than she usually packed. The Kazekage had been the toughest opponent she had ever faced, and she had almost gotten crushed inside giant balls of sand, or smacked out of the skies. If she had been carrying any less clay, she might have lost an arm or something. And that would just suck.

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Hidan stood above his latest tribute, a man who apparently had a rather large bounty on his head. He still had a regular amount of blood though. Hidan had checked. It wasn't like Kakuzu needed the blood to cash in his bounty.

"Need I remind you that the quarry has to be recognizable for me to get my money?" Speak of the devil and he shall berate your methods of killing. Kakuzu was Hidan's opposite in every way but one, and it was because of that one thing they had been paired together. While Kakuzu was covered head to toe, minus an opening for his eyes, Hidan went shirtless and wore his Akatsuki cloak halfway unbuttoned. Kakuzu was economical in every movement he made, never doing more than was necessary to get his money. Hidan killed for the fun of it, or the religious significance if you were to listen to him, and preferred to drag out the kill for the maximum pain possible.

"Aw, fuck off. I killed him, not you, so don't go bitching about how long it took." swore Hidan. "If you were in such a hurry, you should've stepped in and done it yourself."

"If I did, you wouldn't shut up for weeks." countered Kakuzu. "Besides, your way-"

"_We have one. Be ready tomorrow_." Kakuzu's sentence was cut off by a voice that spoke directly into their minds. A voice that commanded respect, even from Hidan. The voice of Akatsuki's leader. The message was short though, and Hidan and Kakuzu were left to ponder which Tailed Beast would be first.

"About damn time." As expected, Hidan was the first to resume the immortal banter. "Who do you think it was?"

"Probably those two blonde idiots were the first to try, though if that's the case I'm surprised they succeeded." answered Kakuzu absentmindedly, hoping he had enough time to cash in his bounty before they began the… whatever it was they did once they captured a Tailed Beast.

"Hey, this guy's bounty that it isn't that art freak and the 'sage'. Eh, you up for it?" questioned Hidan as he poked Kakuzu's stomach with his elbow. This kind of disrespect would usually cost someone their life, but Hidan would probably enjoy Kakuzu's effort more than he would expire from them.

"It's already my money." said Kakuzu. He paused for a moment in thought before continuing. "Double or nothing."

"Well, I sure as hell don't have any use for your damned money… Why not?" Hidan remarked after a second of thinking about it. "I'll even treat you to dinner when I win. Ha!"

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"_We have one. Be ready tomorrow_." Sasori and Zetsu stopped what they were doing at the sound of Leader's voice. Sasori set down the tools he had been using to make his latest masterpiece, and Zetsu stopped eating the extra parts of Sasori's latest masterpiece.

"Right as soon as the deadline passes too. **It's not that impressive. I bet one of them died in the process.**" said Zetsu and Zetsu. His two halves spoke in their own separate voices, and conveyed completely different opinions, but Sasori had grown accustomed to his partner's oddities. Now he didn't have to dispose of the 'extracts' he had whenever he made a new puppet. He personally didn't require food, and with Zetsu eating his scraps, the two could avoid civilization entirely except for when their occupations as Akatsuki's spy masters required it.

"It doesn't matter if one of them died. I'm glad we already have one so soon after the deadline. I hate waiting." said Sasori. "We should get a move on ours'. I hate making others wait almost as much as I hate waiting myself." His voice that was significantly less gruff than most of Akatsuki would think. One problem with being forever young was that fact that his voice had never actually deepened much. He could usually hide it with Hiruko, but he need finer control when making a new puppet.

"Sure thing! Let's go for the Seven Tails!" exclaimed Zetsu's white half. "**Great idea. If you want to die that is. We should target the Three Tails first.**" grumbled Zetsu's black half.

"Enough. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, we need to finish up here so we'll be on time for the sealing." said Sasori as he picked his tools back up. He dug back into the corpse before him and removed the other kidney, tossing it to Zetsu. The plant man snatched it out of the air and took a large bite out of the organ like a raw, meaty organ.

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"_We have one. Be ready tomorrow._" The voice of god spoke directly into the minds of Itachi and Kisame simultaneously. The two realized that today was actually the third anniversary of their blunder with the Mizukage. They were impressed that someone had moved so quickly, but not really surprised.

"Ha, already?" chuckled Kisame. "I bet the zombies have been stalking their prey for a year now, pissed that they couldn't kill him and collect the bounty."

Internally, Itachi chuckled along at his partner's joke, but like a true Uchiha, his face betrayed nothing but boredom. "The two have their vices, but they're useful to Akatsuki." stated Itachi in his monotone voice that struck terror into the hearts of those who heard it. Except Kisame, who seemed to find it funny.

"Never said they weren't." laughed Kisame, showing off a mouth full of filed teeth. "Let's finish up here and get ready to deal with that Tailed Beast." The shark man used his sword as leverage to get to his feet, the motion lopping off the head of the corpse he had been sitting on. As he stood up, Kisame dusted off his Akatsuki cloak with his hand, as if the gesture would somehow remove the blood that stained both him and the surrounding area. Itachi, as usual, was spotless. Somehow Kisame wasn't in the least surprised. "Let's find somewhere more private."

Itachi and Kisame walked away from the clearing that they had filled with the blood of an entire platoon of hunter ninja from the Hidden Mist as if the entire affair had only taken ten minutes out of their schedule. In reality, it had taken five.

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Deidara picked up her partner and, now that her bird was carrying three passengers, slowly began to fly away at a low altitude to conserve energy. The three, one unconscious, weren't very far from the village when they heard their getaway device explode violently in the distance.

Deidara whistled at the sheer size of the explosion that Naruto had placed to 'deal with' any pursuers. "Damn. I thought you were joking about that Sage chakra stuff. We so have to make more of those later." The bombs in question had been made more potent by Naruto's Sage chakra after he had the idea to supercharge his partner's explosives. The resultant blast was something neither of them wanted to be caught in.

"You want to use those in combat?" asked Naruto raising an eyebrow. "Well it's your funeral I suppose." In reality, Naruto wasn't keen on giving anyone the secrets of Sage chakra. One didn't become an S-Rank ninja by passing out their secrets, but vehemently denying it would just make Deidara suspicious.

"I guess you're right, yeah." said Deidara dejectedly before perking right back up. "But what about remote bombings? Like the one we just pulled off, yeah? We wouldn't be anywhere near them!"

Naruto thought about this, and came to the conclusion that he had no plausible excuse. Deciding that it would be a greater risk to deny his partner without a reason, he relented. He could always make up some excuse about the chakras not mixing right and becoming unstable later. "Alright, but later, ok? Right now we have to deal with this jinchuriki."

As Naruto looked down at the red haired jinchuriki, he wondered what his life might have been if he hadn't been found by Akatsuki. The hypothetical scenarios that resulted all had one thing in common. Whether he ended up working for a Hidden Village, dead, or meeting Akatsuki as a jinchuriki instead of a member, they all ended up with him losing the freedom he had come to love being an unaffiliated ninja. Answering to Pain instead of being killed by him was definitely the better of the two options, and he could still be a loyal Toad Summoner.

He felt some remorse about fighting the Hidden Leaf, which the Toads were currently allied to via Jiraiya, but Fukasaku had reassured him that there was nothing new about this kind of situation. This had reassured him about the correctness of his actions, but he was still uneasy about actually fighting Jiraiya. The man was also a Sage, but with about fifty years of experience more than what Naruto had. He had run the fight through his mind hundreds of times, and he usually lost. He had trained for that fight though, and had developed several strategies to at least increase his odds of survival.

Naruto was broken from his mental worrying by two familiar chakra signatures quickly approaching the Akatsuki members. He stood up and jumped off of the bird without ceremony. Deidara stopped and turned to her partner quizzically.

"I wasn't as thorough as I should have been." said Naruto as he faced towards the two approaching Hidden Sand Ninja. "I'll catch up later." Deidara shrugged but decided that Naruto could take care of himself and left.

She had only made it several meters when the reason for Naruto's departure became obvious. "GIVE US BACK OUR BROTHER!" the blonde haired jonin shouted, emphasizing her point with a large swing of her slightly tattered fan. The boy's slightly broken puppets let out a barrage of senbon and kunai that were propelled by the wind. The blast kicked up a massive cloud of sand that temporarily obscured their view, but they remained on guard. They had learned the hard way not to underestimate their opponents, but they were still surprised by what they saw when the dust settled.

"I had thought you had some common sense when you tried to hide from me. You had just been doing your job, and I had no real reason to add two more to the body count." said Naruto, completely unscathed despite the weapons surrounding him and the large gashes that dug trenches in the sand around him. Glaring at the two so fiercely they took a step back, he continued. "But now I see I have no option but to rid the world of your idiocy."

Naruto's hand were a blur as he ran through the hand seals, clapping them together loudly on the last one. His chest swelled as he reared back to let loose his technique. "**Sage Art: Toad Oil Wave!**" Naruto forcefully spat out the golden liquid as a veritable wall, leaving no hope of dodging. The girl swung her fan, but the tattered fan could only put up a token resistance against the Sage chakra powered technique. The two were doused in the oil easily, but were otherwise unharmed as the wave passed. They wiped the oil from their eyes in time to see their opponent launching another technique, this one not as harmless.

"**Sage Art: Majestic Flame Devastation!**" This jutsu required only a single hand seal, and was nearly unavoidable. The only downside was the sheer amount of chakra it literally burned through. As a sage though, that wasn't really a concern for Naruto. The wave of flames launched towards his unfortunate opponents, who tried to move out the way. They found to their horror however, that the oil also doubled as a high powered adhesive, and they could only stand and watch as their doom came hurtling towards them.

Naruto watched as the flames passed over his enemies, burning the oil quickly and hotly. The flames were quickly blown out by a strong wind though, at least on the boy. Naruto eyed the girl in surprise before she collapsed to the ground. She had used the last of her strength to put out the fires on her brother. It was a meaningless effort though, as Naruto walked up to the boy with the intent to finish him off. He was shocked to see that the boy was not only still alive, but actually fighting to remain conscious. Naruto decided to taunt his opponent a bit more before sending him off, in light of the fact that he had let them go once already.

"I'm feeling generous." said Naruto, which was a complete lie. "So I'll give you a choice. Should I kill you now, or let the wounds kill you slowly?"

Naruto was impressed by the sheer tenacity the puppeteer showed in actually responding. "F…uck…off." The response was less than eloquent, and Naruto glared angrily. Insulting him was basically insulting Akatsuki. Out of the respect he had for the organization, even if they would kill him should they discover his jinchuriki status, that could not be allowed to stand.

"Now then." said Naruto, emphasizing the point with a solid blow powered by Sage Mode. It might not have been as eloquent as Sasori's poison or as extreme as Deidara's art, but hitting anyone in the back of the head with the force of a wrecking ball would result in death. He leaned down and whispered to the body of the black clad jonin. He was certainly dead, but Naruto could pretend that he was giving a fellow warrior a bit of reassurance. "You were either stupid or brave to fight me like this. I killed you for the stupidity, but for the bravery, I'll leave your sister alive. The wounds will still kill soon her unless the Hidden Sand has some good medics. It was more stupid than brave anyway."

Naruto stood and began to walk away from the carnage he had wrought upon the dunes, leaving one corpse and one unconscious body behind him. He looked around to make sure there was no one watching, and then broke out into a sprint. Deidara could cover some serious ground, and he was running behind.

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"Think we're ready?" A pair of onyx eyes looked back at the speaker questioningly, who in turn decided to clarify. "To take on _them_. Akatsuki."

"Not at all." responded Sasuke grimly, before smirking. "_I'm_ prepared to take out the entire organization, but you might want to sit this one out."

Sora tried to lightly punch the Uchiha in the shoulder for his smug attitude, but they were both winded from their test, and it came out as a badly aimed swing that swished harmlessly past. Realizing he had no physical strength left, the blue haired jinchuriki decided to bring the spar back into the realm of words. "Shut up. We totally got this."

"I've just been training." mentioned Shikamaru, who was significantly less tired than his friends. "It's you two that have been trying to match S-Rank ninja in such a short amount of time."

After the events in the Land of Honey, Sora had begun to take his training far more seriously. Sasuke had joined them after both of his teammates left to study medical techniques under the new Hokage. With no one to train against, he had found his way to Team Ten, and he and Sora had become decent enough friends over the last three years of non-stop training. Their goal to surpass both each other and Akatsuki drove them head and shoulders beyond Shikamaru and Choji, who continued training as they would have otherwise.

Kakashi and Asuma chuckled at their students' antics. "I can't believe they managed to get the bells from you because of a book, Kakashi. Exploiting your opponent's weaknesses is one thing, but that was just sad." said Asuma as he turned to his co-sensei. The two had quickly decided to work together in training their pupils to defend themselves against the organization of S-Rank ninjas that wanted them both dead.

Kakashi wasn't one to be bested so easily, and fired right back. "Oh? At least my student isn't better at my technique than I am. Maybe you should work on your Flying Swallow a bit more."

The one eyed jonin was smirking at him, but that mask prevented Asuma from seeing it. He could tell though, it was in the eye. Any further banter between the sets of rivals was cut off by the abrupt arrival of Sasuke's two teammates. Sakura was the better medic of the two, and was the first to speak.

"Guys, the Hokage want to see us all right now." The urgency in her voice was poorly masked, and the whole group was slightly taken aback by the sudden summons.

"What's wrong?" Choji recovered before the others and spoke up to inquire what was wrong, as befitting his kind nature.

"Lady Tsunade will fill in the details, but it's something to do with the Hidden Sand, and…" Ino trailed off, unsure whether or not to continue. She steeled herself after a moment and spoke the last dreaded word. "…Akatsuki."

The mention of the S-Ranked ninja had the attention of all present. Sora and Sasuke in particular wasted no time in getting to the Hokage's office as quickly as possible. Choji and Shikamaru were off a second later, though with less urgency and more complaining. Kakashi and Asuma eyed each other for a moment and decided then and there that no matter what happened, they would keep their students safe.

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**A/N: Seventh chapter up! Wooo! Yes, Kankuro is dead. Temari will die soon as well, unless a skilled medic gets there soon *wink**wink*. Akatsuki is composed of ten of the most powerful people in the WORLD. This makes their canonical body count of main characters of two even more frustrating. Literally, it's just Jiraiya and Asuma. Not here! People will die, especially when people as dangerous as Akatsuki decide that they should die. Hope you enjoyed, and reviews are always awesome! See ya!**


	8. Chapter 8

Dawn's Sage

Chapter 8

"Three days?" exclaimed Deidara. "We stand here doing nothing for three days just to move the Tailed Beasts twenty feet into a statue? Didn't people invent jinchuriki's because stuff like statues couldn't hold Tailed Beasts?"

Pain stood in the face of the tirade calmly, then answered in a voice that commanded respect, whether you wanted to give it or not. "This statue is uniquely suited for containing the Tailed Beasts. And unless you'd prefer fighting a Tailed Beast one on one, you would be wise to follow the three day schedule." The statue certainly looked unique, like some kind of demon fresh from the torments of hell. From the bit in its mouth, to the nine eyes in its head, to the chained hands, the statue was the stuff of nightmares.

"Besides, it may take less time, with all ten of us. The seal will be balanced with ten sources of chakra, and we might be able to speed things along." elaborated Konan, her amber eyes being the only discernible feature on the projection cast via their rings.

"Well then let's get a move on. I hate waiting." said Sasori as his silhouetted figure reappeared on the statue's left thumb. The remaining members of Akatsuki took their places on the fingers that their own rings were placed upon. The ten S-Rank ninjas placed their hands in a simple ram seal, and waited for the statue to do whatever it did.

They were only mildly surprised when the chakra flow through their rings increased drastically. It had always siphoned off a little bit to keep them working in case Pain had to contact them, but the previous trickle of chakra was incomparable to the flood of chakra it took now. Pain's ringed eyes were full of steel as he formed the seal last, and declared the name of the jutsu. "**Sealing Technique: Ten Phantom Dragons Consuming Seal!**" As if his words were a trigger, which they probably were, the bit fell out of the statues mouth, and ten dragons made entirely of chakra descended on the red haired jinchuriki that lay unconscious before them. The Kazekage was lifted up into the air as red demonic chakra seeped out of his eyes and mouth.

Naruto found the entire experience wholly unsettling, mostly because it would be exactly what would happen to him if he were ever found out. He could only hope that Sora had enough of the Nine Tails chakra in him for whatever Akatsuki planned to do with the Tailed Beasts.

"Hidan, I'll take my winnings in cash after the sealing." said Kakuzu, addressing his partner with his usual gruffness. "Unless you've decided to not uphold your end of the bargain."

"Fuck off, you five hearted freak. You'll get your damned money once this is all said and done. Jashin has no need of it anyway." replied Hidan, though for someone who didn't need the money, he sounded awfully annoyed about letting it go.

"Mind me asking what this bet was?" asked Naruto, quirking an eyebrow even though he knew they would only be able to see a shadowy figure.

"I thought that if it was you two that had captured a Tailed Beast, either you or the bitch would have died in the process." Hidan replied before Kakuzu could, and the stitched man was very unhappy about the details of their bet getting out.

"Kakuzu? Would you be a dear and stitch Hidan's mouth shut?" asked Deidara with all the false sweetness she could muster.

Kakuzu's red and green eyes widened in shock. "_Why have I not thought of that before?_" His eyes quickly narrowed and looked to his right.

Hidan noticed the look and awkwardly laughed. "Hey, Kakuzu, buddy! You wouldn't really stitch my mouth shut, would you?" His only reply was a thin tendril that emerged from Kakuzu's arm and snaked upwards. Hidan's pink eyes widened in fear for a moment, and he was soon thrashing around as something seemed to attack his face. Luckily for Hidan, he managed to hold the ram seal the entire time and not disrupt the sealing. Deidara laughed and even Naruto couldn't hold back a smile at Hidan's muted swearing.

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Teams Seven and Ten arrived at the Hidden Sand Village and were ushered in with one of the least comprehensive ID checks Kakashi had ever been subjected to, even by his own village. It was just one more sign of the catastrophe that had befallen the village. Structurally, there wasn't a grain of sand out of place, but anyone could sense the air of despair and sorrow that was practically radiated by the citizens in the wake of their Kazekage's capture. It was testament to how shattered the village was mentally that the Leaf ninja wandered around for several minutes before a nearby chunin decided to escort them to the Kazekage mansion as quickly as possible.

When they arrived, Sakura and Ino were quickly identified as the medics that they had requested from Lady Tsunade, and were whisked away, presumably to the infirmary. The others followed them, and the trauma left behind by Akatsuki continued as they walked past rows of bodies, all burnt to a crisp. The wounds looked gruesome, and the smell of death hung heavy in the air. When the group found Sasuke's teammates, they were standing over another burnt corpse, the only difference being the fact that this corpse was still alive.

The two girls were visibly sweating from the effort of keeping their patient alive. The burnt flesh began to heal, and Shikamaru's eyes widened in horror as he recognized Temari. She had been scheduled to make the trip to the Hidden Leaf to help him plan the next Chunin Exams in several weeks, and now here she was, barely clinging to life. Despite the fact that she was a competent jonin of her village, Shikamaru had somehow expected her to be out of the combat, crying about how her brother had been captured.

Shikamaru's eyes then narrowed as he realized that the Sand Sibling that hadn't been kidnapped or nearly dying was nowhere to be found. "Where the hell is Kankuro? I guess he's doing something important if he can't be here when his sister is dying." grumbled Shikamaru.

One of the Hidden Sand genin who had been identifying bodies walked up to the Leaf chunin and meekly tapped his shoulder. When he turned around and glared at her, the brown haired girl barely managed to squeak out what she had meant to say. "Lord Kankuro died when he was chasing after the Akatsuki who captured Lord Gaara. Unlike Lady Temari who's gotten worse since we found her, he was dead when the search team found them." Her message complete, the genin scurried back to the bodies, which she continued to attempt to identify under the horrendous burns.

Shikamaru was struck speechless. He had picked up on the despair, and even seen the bodies, but until that moment, Akatsuki had never hurt him. Oh, they had hurt him, but the physical pain was temporary. But until now, all his encounters with Akatsuki had left everyone he knew alive, if not well. He could vaguely hear the medics of Team Seven talking about how Temari would likely pull through, and heard himself express some sarcastic relief, but he really heard nothing over the sheer horror and rage directed at Akatsuki.

Sora looked around the room, finding the slow healing of burnt flesh too disturbing for him. Unfortunately, the room was full of bodies that were in far worse shape than Temari was. "Excuse me, I have to… get some air." said Sora, holding back his lunch. He managed to make it to the bathroom before he couldn't hold back the expression of disgust and horror. In the privacy of the bathroom, Sora allowed his tears to mingle silently with the bile.

"Idiot, this is all part of being a ninja." muttered Sasuke, though if he was completely honest with himself, it took all his Uchiha pride and personal will to keep from doing the same. Choji had simply closed his eyes, but one had to look no further than the unopened bag of chips in his hand to see how disturbed he was. Sakura and Ino were both of the same mind; focusing entirely on the work before them to ignore the horror around them and even the truth of the wounds before them.

Kakashi bore it all with the same air of sorrow the Hidden Sand ninja all had. He and Asuma were all too familiar with the horrors of war, and even though this just a single twenty minute attack by two people, it rivaled some of the worst battles they had ever witnessed. Sora emerged from his emotional and physical purge as the girls were finishing up all they could do for Temari, the perfect image of tranquil fury. The bandages over his right arm were bulging as the Nine Tails' chakra responded to his rage.

"Asuma, when are we going to end these bastards?" asked Sora, his fist tightening so fiercely they threatened to draw blood.

Asuma turned questioningly to Kakashi, who in turn faced Sora and filled him in on what he had missed. "I sent out Pakkun to try and get a trail. We don't have anything from the Akatsuki members, but they'll be carrying Gaara, and there's no lack of his scent around here." explained Kakashi. He raised his voice to address the entire group. "I suspect he'll be back by morning, but until then we all need to get prepared to face Akatsuki."

The group trudged off in different directions to find their rooms and rest off the three day run to the Hidden Sand. Kakashi himself let out a sigh, but quickly tensed at the subdued killer intent directed at him. He turned around and found himself looking a woman who didn't look a day under ninety who was glaring angrily at the silver haired jonin. Deciding to not cause an international incident, or at least start one, Kakashi tried to be friendly. "Uh, hello. What can I help you with?"

The elderly woman glared back at him as if he had done her some great personal wrong. When she did speak, her words were dripping with malice. "I suppose you wouldn't remember killing my son among all the murders you've committed." Kakashi tried to keep senseless killing to a minimum, and hadn't killed any Hidden Sand ninja old enough to be this woman's son, which left him confused and speechless. "But if I want to reach the only family I have left, I need to get at Akatsuki. I'll do anything to save my grandson, even if it means working with the _White Fang_." The last two words were spoken as if they were the most vulgar of curses.

The reason for this woman's anger, as strange as it was, finally dawned on Kakashi, and he quickly tried to assure the shorter woman. "Ah, you have me confused with my father. The White Fang of the Leaf has been dead for over a decade."

The woman turned a scrutinizing eye on him, looking at him carefully from head to toe. Just when Kakashi was about to crack under the pressure, she began laughing, though the sound was more aptly described as a cackle. "I was just _pretending_ to be senile!" Kakashi was certain that she had truly mistaken him for the White Fang, but decided to appease the older woman and began to awkwardly laugh as well. The woman slowly backed out of the room, still laughing, and by the time Kakashi thought to ask her what she had meant by finding Akatsuki the old woman had left.

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"So what are we going to do with the body?" asked Deidara. "Do we have to like, put it some special jinchuriki corpse disposer or something?"

The shadowy figures of Akatsuki looked toward their Leader, who responded. "Decide amongst yourselves. It matters not." The simple dismissal opened the gates for the argument of what they would do with the corpse of the Fifth Kazekage.

Zetsu's white half was the first to voice a suggestion. "We should eat him!" Before any other member of Akatsuki could shoot down the proposal, Zetsu did it himself. "**Ridiculous. He would taste like sand. It wouldn't even be worth the trip.**"

Kakuzu was the next to suggest a disposal method. "Sell him. The money from a Kage's corpse is good enough. Being a jinchuriki in addition to that, and he's worth a large fortune." His suggestion was met by mumbled arguments from his partner, who had yet to fully unstitch his mouth.

The last valid option came from Sasori. "I'd love to have another Kazekage. I would have to collect the body before it starts to decompose, but Zetsu could pick it up quickly enough once this is over." The hunched over puppeteer and the immortal bounty hunter both looked at the two blondes that ultimately had control of the Kazekage's corpse.

Deidara was torn between the two, and if she was perfectly honest with herself, unsure of what to do now that two of her more aloof seniors were contesting over something she had. Naruto came to her rescue with his 'sage' logic, calm as ever. "There's no rush. The body won't be going anywhere for another two days regardless." This placated the two Akatsuki members that were vying for the body for the moment.

The cavern fell silent once again except for the moans of pain from the jinchuriki that was slowly having the life sucked out of him. The relative silence didn't last long however, as Zetsu spoke up again, his voice conveying less of its usual joy and more of its usual frustration. "There are two groups of Leaf ninja headed towards the base. **One is coming from the Hidden Sand, and the other group is headed from the Hidden Leaf. If they continue at this pace, **oh no! They'll reach the Kazekage before we're done sealing!"

"We'll deal with them when they get here." said Naruto confidently. He looked at Deidara, who returned the cocky smirk.

"No." The single syllable from Pain was enough to wipe the confidence off of their faces. "They must not be allowed to reach this chamber while we are sealing the Tailed Beast. We'll deal with them before they reach us."

"How?" questioned Deidara as respectfully as she could. "We can't leave the sealing ceremony, or else the whole thing fails, yeah. How are we supposed to stop them before they get here?"

"I'll need two volunteers to buy us some time, preferably members with large chakra reserves." said Pain. Kisame and Naruto tentatively volunteered, wary to be guinea pigs, but confident in the knowledge that no one could match them in sheer chakra reserves. "Good. I have a technique that will let you deal with them, while remaining here. Remember, you're going to buy us time, not show off." Kisame and Naruto swallowed in unison, and then felt a third of their chakra disappear.

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Kisame and Naruto opened their eyes together. They were in bodies that were both theirs and not. It was a thoroughly disturbing sensation. Naruto in particular felt extremely strange, and soon realized it was because for the first time since he had perfected the technique, he wasn't in Sage Mode. The realization made his blue eyes widen before he closed them and stopped moving entirely. The influx of Natural chakra jumpstarted Sage Mode after several seconds, and he allowed his connection to nature slow to the familiar trickle that kept him in Sage Mode even when he slept.

"Man, I haven't felt this weak in years." muttered Kisame, marveling at the fact that his new body somehow still had Samehada strapped to his back. "Feels like I'm running at thirty percent."

Naruto stood up, his eyes once more their usual gold. "It is strange, but I can still kind of feel my…" Naruto trailed off as he looked upwards. Looming over the two was the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, and Naruto was standing on the left little finger was Naruto. "This is just plain weird. Useful, but weird."

Kisame followed Naruto's gaze, and took turns looking at both Naruto's. "I'd be surprised that this is even possible, but it is Leader's technique. I guess we should go take care of those Leaf ninja, huh?" suggested Kisame.

Naruto was brought out of his shock by Kisame's words. He congratulated himself on not making Pain his enemy, and then answered. "Yeah, which ones do you want to take? The ones from the Hidden Leaf or the ones from the Hidden Sand?"

"Sharks don't do well on the land, and deserts are notoriously dry. In my current state, I'll take every advantage I can get. You take the sand, I'll head to the forest." replied Kisame. Naruto really didn't care one way or the other, so he went along with the suggestion. The two turned to leave, but Naruto noticed something else out of place about the technique.

"Is it just me, or do these rings seem like cheap knock-offs?" inquired Naruto as the two exited the cave.

"No, Samehada isn't drawing any chakra either. I guess this is some crazy complex clone technique." reasoned Kisame. The shark man decided to leave Naruto with some final thoughts before they left their separate ways. "I know we're all in Akatsuki for our own reasons, but if your reason involves betraying us at any point… well, I was known for killing my comrades if they became liabilities. I joined Akatsuki to stop killing my allies. Whatever your reason, make sure it doesn't interfere with mine."

Naruto simply nodded, glad that his reason for joining Akatsuki was one of survival. The two chakra tanks turned their backs on each other, a deeper understanding formed, and left to cause some carnage.

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Pakkun had returned soon after he had left, having picked up on a strong trail. Teams Ten and Seven left to rescue the Kazekage, accompanied by the old woman that Kakashi had learned was Lady Chiyo, a master puppeteer and the best seal master in the Hidden Sand Village. Shikamaru and Choji were shanghaied into helping keep an air of strength on the country's borders.

It had been explained to them that while rescuing Gaara was important, insuring that other villages saw the Hidden Sand as still too strong to invade took priority. Shikamaru and Choji had opted to stay back and help, reasoning that they were the weakest fighters in the group, and unlike Ino, they didn't know medical jutsu. Shikamaru had also reasoned that too large of a group would likely bring them to Akatsuki's attention and slow them down further. Sora in particular was quick to assure his teammates that they were important and strong as well, but Shikamaru insisted, casting a quick glance to the infirmary, and he was rarely wrong. Pakkun had tried to make it up to the two by offering to let them touch his 'soft and supple' paw pads. Shikamaru had declined, but Choji took the pug up on his offer.

Any discussion had been out of the question as the entire group struggled to keep up with Sora and Sasuke's pace. The two had slowed down after they had been too far ahead and missed a turn in the trail. If Kakashi hadn't dashed ahead and caught them, the two would have kept running all the way back to the Hidden Leaf.

The group had found out that Gaara had been taken into the Land of Rivers, and they would hopefully find Akatsuki's lair soon. The first sign of trouble however appeared at the border between the Land of Rivers and the Land of Wind. And it took the form of a blonde teenager garbed in black and red. Kakashi had to almost physically restrain the jinchuriki from leaping at the Akatsuki member before them.

"I knew you'd pass this way. Well, maybe that's wrong." said Naruto, inspecting his black fingernails without a care in the world. He stopped before continuing, facing them with a cocky grin. "Pass implies that you'll keep moving onwards."

The provocation had the desired effect, and Sora sprinted towards the Akatsuki member, red chakra extending the length of his claws a good four feet. Three parallel trenches were dug into the ground by the noxious demonic chakra, and the claws shot upwards at the Akatsuki member.

Naruto dodged to the side and caught Sora's wrist, then crossed his other arm across to catch the left hand of an Uchiha that held a ball of blue lightning. Naruto scoffed at the two Leaf ninja. "Still a one trick pony I see. You haven't changed a bit."

"Just seeing if you have." replied Sora as he dropped his claws to grab Naruto's wrist and hold him there. Sasuke's right hand lit up with the electric chirping of a thousand birds. Naruto's toad-like eyes widened in surprise at the tactic, but he wasn't taken out so easily, even with only one third of his full strength. Naruto uncrossed his arms violently, knocking off Sasuke's aim and slamming Sora into the ground. The Chidori still cut across his stomach, making a shallow cut. As the two youths crossed his vision, Naruto couldn't see the Lightning Blade that Kakashi was charging at him with. But he'd have to be an idiot to not sense it.

The blonde Akatsuki member surprised Kakashi, not by trying to dodge the attack, but instead launching his head forward. The head butt was not a counter to the Lightning Blade Kakashi had ever encountered before, but it was certainly effective. The clash of foreheads sent Kakashi flying backwards, and Kakashi could have sworn that the attack felt more akin to an Earth Dragon that a head butt. Sasuke landed on his feet, skidding to a halt to Naruto's left and Sora remained on the ground, struggling to get his hand free.

"Now I see what people mean when they refer to the Hidden Leaf's infamous teamwork. Together you might even make me try." said Naruto as his stomach wound healed. It still didn't feel right, but Naruto chocked it up to the weird cloning technique Pain had used. The pink haired girl ran up, clearly telegraphing her straightforward jab, yelling in anger the whole time. Naruto decided to show a Sage's defensive strength before killing the stupid girl to show he meant business.

He was completely unprepared when the punch _hurt_, and sent him flying backwards like an arrow from the bow. As he crashed through the trees behind him, he vaguely heard the girl taunting him. "How did someone that weak end up in Akatsuki anyway?" The punch had hurt a lot, even in Sage Mode, but it was far from a finishing blow.

Naruto stood back up and emerged from the cloud of dust and wood chips. "Thank you." All eyes turned to him in surprise that Sakura's punch hadn't seemed to do anything. "Now I know who I'm going to kill first."

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"Look out!" Befitting his duty as primary scout, Neji was the first to spot the danger. Said danger took the form of a bandaged… lump half submerged in the ground rocketing towards Team Nine. All of them were very proud of their taijutsu, and easily dodged the attack. The bandaged thing shot past them and smashed into a nearby rock formation, kicking up a cloud of dust in the process.

The most physically fit team in the entire Leaf Village readied themselves to fend off another attack as the dust cleared. Standing in on top of the rubble was one of the strangest individuals they had ever seen. He was incredibly tall, and held the bandaged thing like it was a sword. He was also blue and had gills underneath his eyes. Oddly enough, it wasn't this that made Team Nine wary. It was the black cloak adorned with red clouds that he wore, marking him as a member of Akatsuki.

"Hehehe." laughed the blue man, his pointed teeth giving the impression of a shark. "I suppose it would have been too easy if that attack got you. My partner doesn't usually let me play around much, so I'm going to enjoy this."

Might Gai, the leader of the team and the Hidden Leaf's premier taijutsu expert, gasped in recognition. "You! You're… an Akatsuki member!" The rather obvious and unhelpful descriptive unveiling of their opponent's identity had several effects. Neji and Tenten groaned at their sensei's inability to read the foreboding atmosphere.

Rock Lee however, had a much different reaction. "You're so wise Gai sensei!" Tenten had to physically reach over and stop him from pulling out his notebook and writing his sensei's 'genius' deductions.

Kisame quirked an eyebrow at the leader of the Leaf ninja. The green spandex and orange leg warmers were more striking than his own Akatsuki attire in their own way. Other than the chunin dressed almost identically, the other members of the team were dressed much more sensibly. "Well, I suppose you're not wrong…" trailed Kisame. "But I'm a bit famous in my own right, so let's see if I can make you recognize me, huh?"

With that Kisame tossed his blade up into the air, and decided to start out with a pretty recognizable technique. "**Water Style: Exploding Water Shockwave!**" He threw up gallons upon gallons of water, riding the rising tidal wave up to catch Samehada. "Let's go!" The wave crashed down on the Leaf ninja, who decided to by smart and jump over the wave. Kisame wouldn't let them get away that easily, and swung his sword to lop the strange leader in half.

His swing was stopped by the jonin's chunin lookalike. The upwards kick knocked Samehada right out of his hand, and the blast of chakra infused air the other jonin sent into his gut sent Kisame flying as well. He had the presence of mind to grab Samehada out of the air on his way past, and the action likely saved him some pain. The girl on the team, who had been standing back up to this point, sent a spiked ball flying at his head. Samehada smacked the projectile away into the water left over from his attack, and the plume of water indicated the thing had actually exploded.

The Leaf ninja regrouped on what was now a lake. Gai's eyes widened in recognition. "That headband! Those powerful water techniques!"

Kisame grinned, glad that he had finally been recognized as the feared Monster of the Bloody Mist Village, strongest of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, Kisame Hoshigaki. "So you finally recognize me, eh? About time."

"You're… a defector from the Hidden Mist Village!" declared Gai with a dramatic finger point. Tenten and Neji groaned once more and Lee actually did get the wondrous knowledge down on paper this time.

Kisame smiled awkwardly and placed a hand on his head in confusion. "Well again, you aren't wrong… I suppose you're getting closer..." shrugged Kisame. "Oh well, I've stalled long enough I'd say. Let's get down to the killing, shall we?"

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Sakura was stunned. Her punches were capable of rivaling her teacher's. They could break boulders easily, win fights in a single move, and this Akatsuki member shrugged it off like he had been hit by a genin. This guy was unreal, and she could see why even Sasuke was scare-nervous! Because Sasuke was never scared. But if he was scared of Akatsuki, she couldn't say she'd blame him.

Naruto ran through several hand seals faster than she could blink, and called out his technique. "**Sage Art: Fire Style: Toad Flame Stream!**" Sakura could only stare in terror at the massive fireball headed towards her. Luckily for her, Sasuke, Sora, and Kakashi wouldn't just let her get roasted alive.

"**Fire Style: Grand Fireball!**"

"**Fire Style: Flame Dragon Bullet!**"

"**Wind Style: Beast Palm Wave!**"

"**Wind Style: Verdant Mountain Gale!**"

The two fire techniques were boosted by Sora's wind, and together the three managed to match the Sage Art, and the two flames canceled out. Fire jutsu were among the most intensive, as the literally burned chakra, and the three Leaf ninja were eager to get the fight to close quarters. Sora's Flying Swallow and Sasuke's unique Chidori Waltz styles utilized their best elements to increase the power of their strikes, and they had trained to use them in tandem perfectly. Asuma and Kakashi ran the Akatsuki member as well, the original versions of their student's techniques readied.

Naruto wasn't one to stand around and take attacks like that, not since Asuma's Flying Swallow had proven that Sage Mode wasn't invincible three years ago. He stomped on the ground, channeling some Sage Chakra into the strike. It sent large chunks of earth flying upwards to obscure the path of his attackers. Sasuke wasn't one to slow down however, and sliced right through the boulder that blocked his path. Unfortunately, after cutting the rock in half, he found himself face to face with the blonde that had made himself as despised as Itachi.

Sasuke guarded himself from a punch that wouldn't come. Instead, his opponent's tongue shot out of his mouth and slapped onto Sasuke's shoulder. The attack was so unexpected that even with the Sharingan's advance warning, he was too stunned to dodge it. The tongue continued to elongate, but it stiffened after hitting Sasuke, and Naruto instead went flying backwards. His plan was laid bare before Sasuke's Sharingan, but he couldn't process it and warn Sora in time to prevent the double kick to the face his rival received for trying to flank the blonde Akatsuki member. The power behind the surprise attack sent Sora flying backwards, and he struggled to land on his feet.

The toad-like appendage that was still affixed to Sasuke's shoulder was forgotten; at least until it suddenly slackened once Naruto got his feet back on the ground. The tongue hurtled back into Naruto's mouth, dragging Sasuke along with it. Sasuke tried to cut the tongue off with the Lightning Chakra still running along his hand, but while he did slice into it, the tongue proved surprisingly resilient. When Sasuke got close enough, the tongue detached, and Sage Mode punch met with Chidori in midair. In the end, Sasuke was still in midair, and Naruto could brace himself against the ground. Sasuke was sent back through the air the way he came, but with significantly less damage than if he had been hit directly.

Naruto drew two kunai, and ran his chakra across them. The potent Sage Chakra turned them to stone, and Naruto sent the stone kunai towards the jonin charging towards him. Asuma went to cut it in half with his wind chakra enhanced trench knife, and Kakashi tried to slice it in half with the Lightning Blade in his right hand. They were surprised when the pain informed them that the kunai had instead cut through the elemental chakra like it wasn't even there. Asuma pulled the kunai out of his shoulder and Kakashi looked at the slice across the back of his hand as the Lightning Blade faded.

"He's definitely earned his place in Akatsuki. He countered our jutsu with just one of his own." marveled Kakashi, who had until now only seen a glimpse of the blonde three years ago. "And his chakra is strange too. Do you see it Sasuke?"

"Yeah. My Sharingan was too weak to see it back then, but now I see why. His chakra is nearly indistinguishable from the chakra in the air around us. It's like he's a part of nature." observed Sasuke.

"Heh, guess you found me out. I draw chakra from nature. It's more potent, but it carries some heavy risks. Risks I overcame with hard work and diligence." Naruto clenched his fist as he continued. "Let me tell you something else. Chakra, even Nature Transformation, will never come close to what natural elements can produce. Now do you see how useless it is to resist me? Every jutsu I use will be stronger than yours, every move I make will be faster, every blow stronger. YOU DON'T STAND A CHANCE AGAINST A FORCE OF NATURE LIKE ME!" Naruto shouted the last part as he rushed forwards.

Naruto jumped halfway towards the Leaf ninja, avoiding a set of near invisible wires that stretched between the two puppets on either side of the clearing. The two puppets flew in towards him anyway, each carrying a katana. Midair, Naruto caught both blades in his hands, then twisted the swords to snap them like twigs. Kakashi and Asuma ran at him as he landed, signature nature transformations in hand. Sora and Sasuke did likewise, running in from the sides to flank him. Naruto hurled the two snapped blades at the jonin, spinning end over end. Naruto transitioned seamlessly into a series of seals, and blasted to wind blasts to the sides, which sent Sasuke and Sora flying once more.

Asuma and Kakashi hopped up to avoid losing their feet, but that move turned out to be a mistake. They were unable to stop Naruto as he shot past them towards the two chunin medics and the old puppeteer. Chiyo stepped forward, her arm clacking as it revealed itself to be a puppet prosthetic. The chakra shield it emitted barely slowed Naruto down as he brushed her aside like a fly. Ino attempted to get off her family jutsu and take control of the juggernaut heading towards them. Naruto wasn't having any of that though, and slapped her arms to the side as he sensed the chakra about to release. The Mind-Body Switch hit Asuma instead, and the unexpected shift from standing to running caused Asuma's body to trip over its own feet.

Kakashi was also caught off guard by his comrade's collapse and tripped over Asuma as the bearded jonin fell into his path. With no mind in it, Ino's body collapsed to the forest floor as well. But Naruto's target was someone else. Sakura tried to send the Akatsuki member flying away like before, but Naruto wasn't one to fall for the same trick twice. He effortlessly ducked under the straight jab and used the motion to sweep the pink haired medic's legs out from under her. His fist reared back to make good on his promise before he dealt with the other seven ninja. The sage mode enhanced punch descended, carrying enough force to turn the girl's face into paste.

Much to the surprise of all, especially Naruto, the fist stopped inches from its target, kicking up a ring of dust on the ground and still knocking Sakura unconscious from the sheer force it had before its abrupt halt. Sasuke, now recovered from the wind blast earlier, tackled Naruto off of his helpless teammate, then quickly got some distance. A stunned Naruto stood up, looking in awe at his right arm, which was now distinctly not human, but toad. The toad-like skin was spreading up his arm, and his hand was already turning to stone. Naruto tried to vent the excess Natural Chakra, but for the first time, the process wasn't reversing.

"Huh, I guess this body isn't used to Sage Mode, even with me in control. You got lucky, Leaf ninja, but don't worry. I'll see you all very soon." said Naruto, shockingly calm for the circumstances. In addition to the human to toad to statue transformation, his skin was falling away like paper, revealing another individual entirely. The Leaf ninja, and Chiyo, could only watch in fascination as the man before them, for it was no longer Naruto, turned into a toad-like statue.

They had no idea who they had been losing to, but one thing was clear. Naruto had been beating them all, without even being there.

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"I know who you are! You're… a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen! But which one…"

"I'm getting tired of this, you weird beast!" said Kisame. He and Team Nine had been going at it for a while now, and every time he got close to killing one of them, another would swoop in and rescue them. Kisame decided to separate his opponents, but before he could decide how, the green clad jonin appeared right in front of him. Not even Itachi could move that fast, and Kisame had his sword kicked out of his hand once again, and the jonin had the nerve to ride his sword away.

The three others jumped at Kisame to take him out, but Kisame had other ideas. The shark man slammed his hands into a basic seal for a basic jutsu. Three towers of water shot up around him and assumed his form. The water clones blocked the incoming taijutsu attacks, but the impact turned them back into water. More chakra made more clones, which used the water from the previous batch to trap the three Leaf ninja in their own little Water Prisons.

The leader jumped back at Kisame, daring to hold Samehada in his hand to try ant attack Kisame with his own sword. In Kisame's completely unbiased opinion, the fool got what he deserved when Samehada rejected him, piercing his hands with its spikes. The jonin dropped the legendary blade, and Kisame caught it midair. A swing and a miss later and Kisame stood surrounded by three water clones holding three Leaf ninja, and Gai stood on the water's surface several meters away. Kisame's eyes narrowed in concentration as the taijutsu master reached into his kunai pouch.

The blue Akatsuki member was surprised when all that emerged was a pair of nunchuks. One of the linked pieces of metal came swinging at Kisame a second later, and he decided that they were incredibly lethal in the hands of an experienced user. He ducked the strike, but the metal bar and chain wrapped around Samehada, locking Kisame in place unless he wanted to lose Samehada a third time. Gai used the nunchuks as a hold to accelerate a round house kick at the Akatsuki's shark. Kisame ducked even lower for that blow, now practically crouching. The jonin's foot landed on Kisame's back as the nunchuks came loose. Gai used the Akatsuki member's back as a platform to launch off of towards the three water clones facing away from him and knock Kisame down onto the water.

The second round house kick decapitated all three of Kisame's clones, and freed the chunin and newly minted jonin. Kisame recovered before his clones died and used the time to run through a series of hand seals. His limited chakra reserves coupled with the fact that he actually had to use his chakra sparingly for once, but he deemed the use of his jutsu strategic. He finished the last seal as the three freed Leaf ninja began sputtering and gasping, and the water in front of him began to writhe.

"**Water Style: Water Shark Bomb!**" The water shark leaped out of the water before Kisame and flew through the air towards the Leaf ninja. The long haired one noticed, and they all jumped out of the way. They didn't anticipate the second half of the jutsu as the shark bomb exploded in a wave of water. Kisame rushed towards the sensor of the group, who had jumped in a different direction, intent on lopping him in half with Samehada. He was slightly taken aback when his strike was deflected by a spinning ball of chakra, but true to its nature, Samehada ate the chakra quickly upon contact. Kisame grinned at the teen's expression as he reversed the direction of his swing and tried to slice from below.

"**NO!**" The blasts of chakra that accompanied the two simultaneous shouts would have sent Kisame flying if he didn't stop his attack to block. The long haired jonin landed gracefully and quickly retreated, but he was quickly replaced by the two green clad ninja. In addition to the chakra rolling off of their bodies, their skin had turned a furious red, and Kisame had barely sensed them move. The dual upper kicks both knocked Samehada out of his hands once more and sent him flying up into the air as his head snapped back.

The younger of the two jumped up and punted Samehada into the distance, removing any chance of Kisame getting it back anytime soon. The older of the two simply appeared in front of Kisame as he was halfway through his hand seals. Kisame's eyes widened as he ducked a punch that literally launched a fireball as it shot past his shoulder. The second punch wasn't dodged, and Kisame felt a burning pain shoot through his entire body. The fourth punch landed as well, then the fifth, then the sixth. Soon Kisame had lost count in the pain. He was vaguely aware of his skin falling off and burning, and he realized with a start that the jutsu was ending, most likely because of his imminent demise.

Gai landed the final punch with a youthful shout of the technique's name. "**Morning Peacock!**" The last hit launched the former member of the Hidden Mist's Seven Ninja Swordsmen who had joined Akatsuki flying into the water. The supplier of its chakra undoubtedly dead, the chakra generated water began to evaporate and disperse at an accelerated pace. Soon Team Nine stood once more on solid ground. Gai looked down at the body of his opponent as he allowed the Eight Gates to close.

Gai's eyes widened in shock as he looked at the corpse of a man who was not tall, blue, and wearing a slashed Hidden Mist headband. "I… don't recognize this man at all…" said Gai, trailing off as he fell into a chakra exhaustion induced sleep.

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Kisame and Naruto opened their eyes at the same time to see the other eight members of Akatsuki as shadowy figures, illuminated only by the light of a dying jinchuriki. Naruto noticed that while he had been fighting the Leaf ninja, his body had stopped gathering natural chakra. He was still in Sage Mode, and quickly started gathering natural chakra once more, but if he had stalled any longer he might have lost Sage Mode in front of Akatsuki. Losing the presence of such potent chakra could allow any of the sensors in Akatsuki to pick up on the Nine Tail's chakra that Sage Mode usually masked.

"I swear to Jashin you lousy son of a bitch, when I don't have to keep this damned ram seal, you are going to be my next tribute!" Apparently sometime in their absence, Hidan had managed to chew through his stitches, something Kakuzu seemed incredibly irate about.

"Hidan, if you don't shut up, I'll kill you." grumbled Kakuzu.

"Ha! If you're pansy ass could kill me, I'd welcome it!" challenged Hidan.

"I take it the Leaf ninja are on their way?" Pain's voice silenced any idle chitchat and drew all attention to Kisame and Naruto.

"That weird cloning technique broke down under the strain of my techniques, but I managed to wound them enough to slow them down for at least a day or two." replied Naruto. He was aware that he had technically succeeded, but the fact that he had lost in the end still ruffled his feathers.

"Same here, though the ninja I was fighting pulled out the big guns to deal with me. If they push on instead of resting up, they won't be able to stand when they get to the jinchuriki." added Kisame.

"Good." The simple one word answer from their leader destroyed any doubts the two had about the success of their mission. When it became obvious that he wouldn't say any more, Akatsuki continued their conversations where they had left off. It appeared that three days of not moving would turn even Sasori talkative, as he and Deidara were arguing over the reality of art. Hidan and Kakuzu were threatening each other and Itachi was filling Kisame in on what he missed.

Eventually the topic of conversation turned to previous victories. Deidara's best 'art' was first to be told, though that was quickly topped by Sasori's fight against the Third Kazekage. Kakuzu's battle against the First Hokage blew even that out of the water, amazing everyone with the power of Hashirama Senju and the knowledge that Kakuzu had somehow survived. Hidan's most recent slaughter failed to upstage the fight with the God of Ninja, and Hidan went back to swearing profusely at his partner under his breath.

"I once defeated seventy of the Hidden Leaf's elite ANBU and Hanzo the Salamander in a single move, ripping their souls from their bodies and feeding them to this very statue." Pain's entry into the story telling contest stunned all other members of Akatsuki to various degrees. Whether it was the power he must wield in order to accomplish the boasted feat or the fact that he had deigned to tell them remained unclear. When the silence was broken, Akatsuki stayed far away from the topic of past conquests.

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**A/N: Eighth chapter up! Wooo! I always thought it was weird that Itachi, a guy with relatively low chakra reserves (in a group of people like Kisame and Kakuzu), would be chosen to stall for time. So I had another chakra tank get chosen. To answer a question about Orochimaru and Sasuke's loyalty, I could come up with some contrived reason, but the truth is I want the villain to be Pain and Akatsuki. Orochimaru is still around, he's just lying low and being generically evil. Without Itachi induced mind rape and Orochimaru power plays, Sasuke had no real reason to leave the village, plus he'll act as a foil to Naruto. Can't have too many bad guys at a time without giving good guys random power boosts. I'm looking at you Rasenshuriken. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and reviews are always appreciated. See ya!**


	9. Chapter 9

Dawn's Sage

Chapter 9

"We need to get a move on and rescue Gaara!" exclaimed Sora. Despite the victorious loss against Naruto, or perhaps because of it, Sora was eager to move forward and rescue the young Kazekage.

"Sora, I'm telling you we need to rest, and if Shikamaru was here, he'd tell you the same. Even if we pushed on without Sakura, we'd all be so tired we wouldn't be any help to Gaara at all." argued Asuma. "We'll rest just enough to recover our chakra, and if Sakura isn't up by then, we'll push on without her and get Gaara."

"Alright…" trialed off Sora reluctantly. Despite his arguments, once he leaned up against the tree, Sora was out like a light. Asuma chuckled silently at the sight before finding his own place for a short nap.

Kakashi found his protégé up in the boughs of a tree, looking at his right hand like it held the answers to the universe. "You should get some rest too. The Chidori isn't exactly easy on the reserves. Trust me, I would know." said Kakashi, his voice carrying the same defeated tone that seemed to follow in Akatsuki's wake. Sasuke looked up to respond, and Kakashi was surprised to see an exhilarated grin that reached the young Uchiha's onyx eyes.

"It might have been some fancy clone, but that was Naruto in control. And I wounded him." Kakashi noticed the blood on Sasuke's hand then, and his visible eye widened. "It wasn't his full power, but it proves I'm better than I was. And it proves he isn't invincible." Sasuke stood up and dusted himself off. "Guess I should rest up if I want to kill when next we meet." The young Uchiha jumped cross to a wider branch so he wouldn't fall and closed his eyes.

Kakashi had missed that. Sasuke had indeed been able to injure the Akatsuki's strange clone. It shouldn't have changed anything, but Kakashi couldn't help but smile as he felt some of the terror and tension rush out of his body. Akatsuki could be hurt. And if they could be hurt, they could be killed.

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Gai knew that Kakashi's team had likely encountered the same kind of stalling tactic his team had, and he was determined not to let his eternal rival best him! His decision to push forward had the unfortunate effect of pushing four tired ninja towards a group of the most dangerous people on the planet, but he was determined to beat Kakashi to the punch.

"Gai sensei, I'm all for making up for lost time, but maybe we could take a break?" asked Tenten as she struggled to keep her eyes open.

"Nonsense!" shouted Gai as he turned around to answer his adorable students. "We must not allow Kakashi's team to beat us once again! We will arrive first! So forward, youth blazing full-" Gai was unceremoniously cut off by his own fatigue. In his weakened and tired state, he had failed to notice the fact that he had not jumped at the branch of the next tree, but the trunk. The impact made even Neji wince as Gai fell to the forest floor.

"Then again, perhaps a rest is in order."

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"So have we decided who gets the Kazekage's body? I've waited long enough." grumbled Sasori.

"Yes. I would like to pass the remaining time looking forward to a good payday." growled Kakuzu.

"We don't really want to drag this thing around any longer than we have to." said Naruto. "We're too slow lugging around this much dead weight. If Zetsu can get the body before the retrieval teams get here, you're welcome to it Sasori."

"Good." said Sasori as he turned to his partner. "And Zetsu? No snaking on the way back."

"Got it Sasori!" said Zetsu. "**Not even a nibble?**"

"No. I'll give you a cut when I'm assembling my new Kazekage puppet." despite the holograms only projecting basic shapes and eyes, Sasori's giddiness was almost present in his voice. Having resolved the issue, Naruto yawned loudly, letting out some fatigue from three fights and the time spent sealing.

"You okay?" asked Deidara. "You seem kinda tired, yeah."

"Thank you for your concern, but I'm fine." replied Naruto. "Just looking forward to a small break after this."

"We will proceed to the next sealing as soon as we capture another Tailed Beast. Feel free to relax, but don't lose sight of the goal." warned Pain, his rippled eyes drawing curt nods from the other nine members of Akatsuki. Naruto sighed knowing that any time Akatsuki got their hands on one of his jinchuriki brethren, he would have to drop everything for three days while they were painfully and slowly killed.

The sealing was scheduled for another twelve hours, so they were all taken slightly aback, except Pain who was unflappable, when the jinchuriki's body leaked out the last little bit of One Tail chakra. The corpse fell to the floor with a resounding flood and the Statues mouth slammed shut. The dragons dissipated as the first eye opened fully. Hidan was the first to break the silence, in about as obnoxious a manner as Naruto had come to expect from the silver haired immortal. "Damn that's creepy."

"We're done here. Get the rest of your Tailed Beasts because so far, the rookies have proven themselves more than you." with the order disguised as a challenge, Pain's shadow disappeared, Konan's soon afterwards. Kakuzu and Hidan dismissed themselves once they figured they were supposed to.

"Zetsu's on his way to collect the corpse. Don't damage it with your 'art'." the contempt in the puppeteer's voice was matched only by the anticipation of getting a second Kazekage to add to his collection. "This will make two hundred and ninety-nine puppets in my collection."

"Yeah yeah, like your lame excuse for art could hold a candle to the real deal. Just get the body before the Leaf ninja get here, yeah. If a fight goes down here, we can't guarantee that the corpse will remain in one piece." retorted Deidara as Zetsu and Sasori's images fizzled out.

Naruto jumped off the statue as it began to sink back into the earth. He took up a meditative pose and actually began to nod off as he drew in natural chakra. "Man, you really are tired. I haven't seen you this beat in, well ever yeah." said a concerned Deidara. The voice broke him out of the beginnings of a peaceful slumber.

"Three fights, the sealing, and a third of my chakra on top of it all. I just need to regain some chakra. Wake me up when Zetsu gets here." said Naruto as he closed his eyes again and began to sleep once more.

Deidara couldn't help noticing how much her partner looked like the jinchuriki's corpse when he slept on the cave floor. She sat down on the red head's chest and resigned herself to waiting in boredom until her blue eyes lit up with a brilliant idea.

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After resting for the night, the two Leaf ninja teams had set off once more. The rest of their journey was rather uneventful, and they arrived well rested on the third day. Teams Seven and Ten arrived at the large rock that Pakkun said hid the Akatsuki's hideout. The base was hidden at the water level of one of the land's many rivers, marked only by a gate and a small paper tag on the rock. To Kakashi's ire, his eternal rival had managed to beat them to the base, though they hadn't made much progress in moving the rock.

"Ah, Kakashi my eternal rival! So you've finally arrived!" shouted an exuberant green clad jonin. "As you can see, my team arrived before yours, and we were stalled by a member of Akatsuki as well. It looks like I win this round of our never-ending challenge of youth!"

"Sorry, did you say something?" asked Kakashi. He smirked to himself as Gai fell to the ground in despair at his unattainable hipness. It never got old.

Neji was the one to sober the mood by bringing up the reason they were actually here. "Akatsuki is waiting beyond that boulder. We've been waiting for you before we open it. It will be tricky."

Sasuke knew that the Uchiha clan was all of two people, and he planned to kill Itachi, but old rivalries died hard. So of course the Uchiha wanted to show up the Hyuga. "Sakura, blow this place wide open."

Sakura grinned, confident in her strength. She pulled her gloves tight and sprinted at the boulder, rearing back her fist to pulverize the rock. She made contact, and the power behind her strike blew back the water beneath her and sent a visible shockwave up the boulder from the point of impact. But miraculously, the big rock remained intact, not even chipped. Sakura was dumbfounded that her strength had failed her for the second time in as many days.

"That won't work." said Tenten. "It was the first thing Gai sensei tried when we got here. It's protected by a seal of some sort. Even Neji's Byakugan can't distinguish anything in there."

"Right, we've located five similar seals in the area, but we didn't take them off yet. I may be faster, stronger, tougher, and better in almost every way, but Kakashi knows seals better than even I." Gai managed to both praise and insult his rival in one sentence. "After all, seals are the most dangerous branch of the ninja arts. Removing them without knowing what they are could kill us all, or worse." Kakashi was glad that his counterpart was able to grasp the gravity of the situation. Then Gai opened his mouth to elaborate. "They could drain us of our youth!"

Kakashi buried his face in his palm and sighed. He looked up, his one eye intently studying the seal high up on the rock. "You were right. There don't appear to be any traps sealed in, and it's definitely a Five Barrier Seal." Kakashi took a closer look and noticed something else, buried just deep enough in the sealing matrix that he almost missed it. "Wait. The five seals need to be removed at the same time, or the main seal will lock up and be impossible to remove."

"We prepared for this. Here." said Neji calmly as he handed his clan's rival an earpiece and microphone. "We'll use these to synchronize our movements." Neji turned back to his team and addressed them. "Let's move out. You stay here to make sure Akatsuki doesn't escape while we're off removing the seals. We'll back you up as soon as we can." Team Nine nodded to each other, two much more exuberantly then the others, and they dispersed.

Sasuke took his position above the seal before them, and Sakura readied herself for redemption. The others were left to swallow nervously and prepare to face Akatsuki.

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Naruto was unceremoniously woken up from his power nap, not by Deidara, or even Zetsu himself, but by the explosion of the entrance to Akatsuki's hideout. Naruto got off from his impromptu bed and yawned as he stretched. Deidara at least had the manners to look apologetic for not waking him up.

"Sorry." said Deidara, lowering her head in apology. "I didn't think they'd be able to get past the seal."

"No. It's my fault for not finishing them before. Though it's not like Zetsu to be late." mused Naruto as the dust cleared. The Leaf ninja who had unceremoniously kicked down the door were the ones he had been in charge of stalling, which annoyed him further. "I thought for sure I delayed you longer than Kisame delayed his Leaf ninja. Did you manage to beat them here?"

Kakashi was the one to respond. "Actually they beat us here by several hours. This Kisame, who I can only presume is the same infamous former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, was less effective than you. Though I'd say he'll soon be infinitely more productive than you. After all, dead men don't do much of anything."

Naruto responded not to Kakashi, but Deidara. 'Aren't they cute when they think they stand a chance?" He turned his gaze to the Leaf ninja. "Unfortunately you're a tad late. We were going to hand him over ro our own puppeteer as a weapon." He nudged Gaara's corpse with his foot to drive his point home. The action angered the Leaf ninja who had been friends with the former jinchuriki, but Granny Chiyo remained calm and stepped forward to address the Akatsuki members.

"So my grandson did get involved with you wretched people. He may be family, but I won't let him defile the body of a Kazekage from his own village. If you must, give him these instead." the old lady drew out two small scrolls and tossed them to the Akatsuki duo. Naruto and Deidara each caught one, and unrolled them to reveal the kanji for Mother and Father. "They're puppets of his parents. I'm not long in this world, one way or another, but perhaps these will save some remnant of my grandson."

"I doubt it, but okay. These scrolls earned you a chance. Get the Kazekage's body back if you can." said Naruto as he set the scrolls before him. "But you'll have to kill two of the 'wretched people' that your grandson has allied himself with."

"Before we begin," Naruto turned his head to see the Uchiha who had spoken up, much to the surprise of all present. "You said my jutsu were no match compared to your power, nature's power. What did you mean?"

Naruto closed his golden eyes to chuckle softly. "It's called Sage Mode. As you've already guessed, it gives me more power than you will ever touch in your life, but there are some heavy risks and many requirements. I'll show you one right now!"

Naruto brought his thumb up to his mouth and bit into it. He performed the five hand seals as he jumped up next to Deidara's clay bird that she had made while they were all talking. He slammed his hand down into thin air, and the sealing matrix spread out from his bloody thumb. A large plume of smoke obscure all vision in the enclosed space, but when it cleared, they all wished that they had remained blinded to the danger they now faced.

"Requirement one of Sage Mode! One must have signed a summoning contract!" shouted Naruto from atop the large toad that was now below him. The large red amphibian carried a large shield and staff and wore a black kimono. Naruto stood between the horn-like protrusions on the toad's head, Akatsuki cloak flaring from the displacement of wind the summoning had caused.

The Leaf ninja were awed, especially Kakashi and Asuma, who recognized the toad summoning contract as one of the things that made Jiraiya of the Sannin as powerful as he was. Their fear turned briefly to wonder however, as the toad spoke. "I'm rather clumsy, but I'll try my best Naruto."

"Let's show them just how powerful the toads can be Gamaken." said Naruto. Gamaken swung his spiked staff at the Leaf ninja, who scattered to dodge. His swing followed through a little too far however, and Gamaken lost his balance. The clumsy toad fell backwards and smashed the roof of the cave, causing it to crack.

"Don't let them get outside!" shouted Kakashi, mistaking Gamaken's fall as an intentional tactic employed by the Akatsuki members. Naruto looked down to Gamaken and nodded. Even though there was no way he should have been able to see the gesture, the large red toad got the message and swung at the ceiling again, this time on purpose. The strike had far more power behind it, and as a result the previously damaged ceiling shattered into pieces and collapsed.

Gamaken was large enough to take any pieces of rubble that hit him, and Deidara was able to dodge around them on her clay creation. The remaining ninja were left to jump from falling rubble to falling rubble to get outside and avoid the deadly rocks. Naruto exited in this manner as well, not because the rocks posed any threat to him, but because he knew Gamaken would be far more effective with room to maneuver. As he predicted, Gamaken jumped out of the hole and attempted to crush the Leaf ninja upon landing. The Leaf ninja scattered to avoid the straight forward attack.

As they emerged, Asuma and Kakashi were met by Naruto jumping at them. He caught Asuma's wrist to stop his Flying Swallow strikes, and Kakashi could only watch as he flew past and landed on the ground. The one eyed jonin pulled up his headband to reveal his sharingan and jumped at Naruto's unprotected back. The Akatsuki member grinned as he sensed Kakashi approaching. Naruto flipped over so that Asuma was between him and Kakashi then kicked hard. Asuma was sent flying at Kakashi, who luckily managed to let his Lightning Blade fade before they hit each other.

Naruto used the force of the kick to propel himself onto Gamaken's head. The other blonde Akatsuki member smirked as she sent two pieces of art at the two Leaf jonin. The explosion was unfortunately stopped by two figures that burst from the settling dust. Sasuke had his sharingan blazing and Sora was cloaked in a noxious red chakra. The bird pierced by the Chidori simply went limp, but the one that Sora sliced in half exploded violently in his face. This seemed to only anger the jinchuriki further, prompting a second tail to sprout from his lower back.

Deidara looked at Naruto, who scowled in annoyance. This was getting to be too much trouble for a dead body.

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Sakura was less graceful than her male teammate. She landed in the bushes face down and struggled to get back up. Luckily for her, the members of Akatsuki seemed to be gunning for the jonin of the group. Sakura was just set to punch the toad that was fighting several puppets at the moment, when Granny Chiyo landed next to her.

"Girl, I need some of your medical expertise for this. Follow me." Sakura was somewhat taken aback by the request from an old woman who had recently treated their entire group with disdain. But she was a medic first, and followed the puppet master back into the cave, which was now more like a pit.

Sakura was shocked to find Ino there as well, and the two other females in the group were kneeling next to Gaara's body. "Forehead, get over here. I don't know what Granny Chiyo has planned, but she says it could mean the difference between victory and defeat up there." whispered Ino. It was more habit than practicality. If Akatsuki wanted to find them, they would need better cover than a whisper.

"I don't see what we can do here." said Sakura as she took a knee next to Gaara's cold body. "Ino and I are good medics, but we can't bring back the dead."

"You might not be able to, but I can." said Chiyo. "I don't have enough chakra for it though, so I'll need your chakra to help." Seeing the disbelief clearly written on their faces, she elaborated. "It was designed to bring puppets to life, but research was stopped due to the sacrifice the jutsu requires. I won't live through this."

Chiyo held up a hand to stop any questions or concerns coming from the two young medics. "I'm not long in this world anyway. I do want you to do two things for me. If you ever meet Sasori, tell him I'm sorry. Secondly…" Chiyo pulled a small ball covered in seals from her sleeve and handed it to Ino. "use this on that 'sage' boy. It should help you against him. Now let's do this."

Her jaw set and face grim, Chiyo laid both her hands on Gaara's chest. Her hands ignited in a transparent green flame, and Sakura and Ino put their hands on top, allowing their chakra to be taken to fuel the Reanimation Technique.

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Kakashi jumped back to avoid a straight jab, seen moments ahead thanks to his sharingan, but it somehow grazed him anyway. Kakashi clearly saw the blow stop several feet from his stomach, but he had been hit regardless. This tactic of trying to give him enough paper cuts to bleed him dry wasn't working. They would clearly need a different strategy. Sasuke and Sora were holding their own against the bomber, but Naruto was beating Kakashi and Asuma almost effortlessly.

"Asuma, can you buy me a minute? I'm going to use my trump card." said Kakashi as he brought up his hands to cover his sharingan. Asuma gave him a thumbs up before rushing back in himself. His wind chakra was easily dodged if not flat out ignored by the sage as he tried to land a hit on the Third Hokage's son. But Asuma had learned from previous encounters, and allotted himself an additional three feet from any given blow. He still felt the hits barely missing him, but they were real grazes, not the kind from before that felt like getting nailed by a sledgehammer.

Asuma realized he was buying time, but making the opponent burn through some chakra was always a good stalling tactic, and it would only make Kakashi's job easier. He jumped back and ran through a series of seals. "**Fire Style: Burning Ash Pile!**" A large cloud of smoke billowed out of his mouth and engulfed the Akatsuki member. He waited for a second to see if his opponent was going to jump out of the smoke before he clacked the flint in his teeth to create a spark. The spark ignited the entire cloud into a massive fireball.

The smoke cleared to reveal Naruto, who had simply stood there and bore the attack, sprinting towards Asuma, his Akatsuki cloak slightly tattered and smoking. He delivered a powerful uppercut to Asuma's gut, lifting him off the ground slightly with the force of the blow and driving the wind from him. His leg shot out to bend Asuma's knee in a manner that wasn't supposed to occur. Asuma screamed in pain and fell down. Naruto went to stomp on his head and smash it, but felt a stopped to avoid a small distortion in the air that contained more chakra than should be possible. He jumped back to avoid it as the distortion moved towards him. While he escaped, a piece of his cloak wasn't so lucky.

Naruto looked down at the hole in his Akatsuki cloak and glared at Kakashi. His golden eyes saw that Kakashi's sharingan had changed to resemble a three pointed pinwheel, slowing its rotation as it cried blood. It looked different, but Naruto quickly identified the mutation. "Impossible, someone who isn't even an Uchiha has the same eyes as Itachi? What was that jutsu?" asked Naruto incredulously.

"The Mangekyo Sharingan." confirmed Kakashi, even as he covered his eye, panting from the exhaustion of his technique. "And Kamui, the jutsu that will end you."

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Deidara scowled at the two Leaf ninja below her. The Uchiha had quickly figured out that her explosives were short circuited by Lightning Style, something even she hadn't noticed. And the Nine Tails brat was a juggernaut, not slowing for even the most powerful bombs she felt she could risk. She had bigger bombs, but anything of a higher quality than C1 threatened to kill him. The last thing she wanted to do was kill the blue haired kid, not if it meant Pain's wrath.

She did have Naruto's toad helping her, which had decided to help her instead of Naruto after the puppets it had been fighting disappeared in ten puffs of smoke. Not that she blamed the guy, Naruto could handle himself and she appreciated the help. The toad, Gamaken if she had heard correctly, swung his split staff down at the duo, who easily dodged the straightforward strike. Itachi's brother actually jumped onto the metal staff and sprinted up its length. He vaulted off of the toad's head and flew towards Deidara's bird, hand holding a chirping ball of lightning death.

Deidara was an S-Rank ninja though, and wouldn't fall for an attack like that even as a chunin. Her art gave a particularly strong flap of its wings, and the Uchiha sailed under her harmlessly. Or he would have, if the Chidori in his hand didn't extend a good twenty feet and almost cut her arm off as it bisected her bird. The clay creation shorted out and began to fall to earth. Deidara hurriedly tried to shape the bomb she had been working on into a new mount.

Still falling backwards, the Uchiha ran through another set of seals, finishing with a tiger seal. "**Fire Style: Grand Fireball!**" The searing ball of heat shot towards her, and she barely had time to chuck her unfinished blob of clay into the fireball and have it explode to disperse the flames. Even so, she wound up with some nasty burns and a hard landing. She scrambled to her feet in what she hoped was a quick and graceful motion to see the jinchuriki running full tilt towards her.

Deidara dodged beneath the blow and struck out with a jutsu she thought she'd never use again. "**Explosion Style: Landmine Fist!**" Her fist exploded violently, sending the jinchuriki flying into the woods. She knew better than to think that had been anything but a lucky blow. Deidara was decent when it came to close combat, but she was no match for a jinchuriki and an Uchiha up close and personal.

Deidara quickly bought herself some time with another of her bloodline's signature moves. "**"Explosion Style: Landmine Priming!**" Deidara's volatile chakra shot into the ground in small lumps, congregating in pressure sensitive patches that would blow up violently if anything heavier than a leaf touched them. Not that the makeshift minefield was slowing down her opponents. It quickly became apparent that the Sharingan could see her chakra, and the Uchiha deftly dodged the dangerous detonations. The jinchuriki just ran through them, a limp right arm being the only damage done.

The two Leaf ninja drew close, and Deidara tried to remain calm and time her attack perfectly. A jet black clay creation, a small lizard, emerged from her hand and exploded at her feet. Not her typical fiery explosions of death, but a poof of dark smoke. The two Leaf ninja were too close to stop their attacks, and Deidara figured that the two tailed menace wasn't thinking clearly enough to use even basic strategy. The three red claws and chirping birds of death collided with flesh, each landing a debilitating, but not fatal, blow.

Deidara could only watch from the owl she had created in the smoke and giggle at the two allies dumb enough to take each other out of the game. The Uchiha's wounds were too shallow to be fatal under all but the most incompetent medics in the world. Which was good, since Itachi would tear her limb from limb if she had killed his brother.

The blue haired one gave her pause, as he seemed to get back up more dangerous than ever. A third tail sprouted from the jinchuriki, but faded as soon as the grapefruit sized hole in Sora's chest was healed. The red chakra faded and he collapsed to the ground unconscious. Deidara grinned. It might have been Naruto's target, but she had just gotten two for one on this mission.

Deidara walked up to the jinchuriki's body carefully, not wanting to be taken off guard by a surprise attack. Her caution was rewarded, not because the blue haired Leaf ninja in front of her jumped up and attacked, but because a green and orange blur shot out of the forest and almost took her head off. Deidara managed to duck in time, but her ponytail almost got hit, and the pain of having her hair indirectly pulled made her wince. A blast of air quickly followed and blew her creation to little bits of clay.

Other than that, she escaped without incident and jumped back to see a group of four more Leaf ninja in different taijutsu stances while the female on the team quickly examined the two unconscious bodies on the ground. After a quick once over to make sure they were alive, she stood next to her teammates and rolled open a large scroll. They were all close range specialists from the looks of things, and while she was competent at close range, it wasn't her specialty. Deidara pulled out two kunai while her hands chewed some clay for an escape to a more comfortable distance.

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Naruto was running, which was a rare occurrence for him. When he did run, it was in a brutally efficient rush of enemy lines, and he couldn't remember the last time he had actively dodged an attack in such a manner. Still, he was running from the whirling sphere of death that was following him along Kakashi's gaze. The masked jonin was a good ninja, Naruto could admit that, but he would be damned before he was overcome by an Uchiha wannabe.

Naruto changed course and began zigzagging towards Kakashi. That 'Kamui' seemed to have one of the same weaknesses as Sage Mode, you couldn't move. Naruto exploited that fact as Kakashi simply stood there and got nailed in the stomach with a full power Sage Mode punch. The blow probably broke every rib in his body multiple times and messed up his organs something fierce. The blow wouldn't be fatal, but that was something Naruto intended to quickly remedy.

Naruto was unprepared when Kakashi grabbed his fist with both hands, holding Naruto close. Kakashi had taken enough pain to justify dying, so Naruto was surprised to find out that not only was he conscious, he was good enough to fight. The Leaf's Copy Cat Kakashi looked up, the action obviously paining him, and locked onto Naruto with one blood red eye. The Mangekyo Sharingan span wildly as Kakashi gave it the rest of his chakra and whispered the name of his trump card. "**Kamui.**"

Naruto felt the displacement in the air coalesce from his neck to his knees as his body itself began to warp. Naruto's eyes widened as he recognized the pull on his body and realized he had only seconds, if that, to save himself. He quickly tucked himself into as small a space as possible to fit his entire body into to small black hole. He also shouted the one name that he hoped could save him from this jutsu. "GAMAKEN!" The large red toad looked at Naruto and gawked at what he saw, before he too recognized what was happening and what Naruto wanted him to do. It was a long shot, but it was his only hope.

The warp point closed in on itself, dragging Naruto along like water down a drain. Blood leaked from Kakashi's left eye once more as his chakra levels plummeted drastically. He could barely remain conscious as he placed his headband back over his Sharingan, but he could rest easy knowing he had defeated a member of Akatsuki for his village and protected his students. Kakashi was about to join his fellow jonin in blissful slumber, but something made him cling to consciousness. The large red toad that had been summoned earlier was running through a set of seals.

"**Reverse Summoning!**" Kakashi's eye widened and he reached to lift his headband back up, but the intense pain from his left eye stopped him in his tracks. The smoke from where the large red toad had placed his hand on the ground cleared to reveal none other than the Akatsuki member he had just banished to another dimension. His chakra spent, Gamaken returned to Mount Myoboku.

"Very good Kakashi. If I hadn't been being summoned since I could walk, I wouldn't have recognized that as a Space-Time jutsu. While my own Space-Time jutsu isn't as versatile, it goes both ways, and provided me with a nice little counter to your jutsu. Too bad, that might have beaten any other member of Akatsuki, but your luck has run out." Despite the lack of actual work he had done, Naruto seemed slightly winded. Being warped between dimensions put a lot of stress on the body it would seem.

Kakashi's brain filed the information away for later, but he was growing suspect that there might not be a later. Naruto stalked up to the jonin, but paused as another chakra signature simply appeared within the range of his Sage Mode's sensory powers. The signature was unforgettable, though it should have been impossible. Ignoring Kakashi, who had finally lapsed into unconsciousness, Naruto turned and sprinted towards the large hole that had once been Akatsuki's hideout.

As he looked down into it, he saw three figures huddled around a fourth, which was stirring. Naruto jumped down, intent to end the threat before it began and kill the medics while he was at it. His kick was blocked by the chakra shield embedded in the old woman's arm, which shattered under the impact, but kept the blow from killing her outright. He spun to face the pink haired one and fired a Wind Bullet through her chest, blowing her heart out the other side as a bloody mess.

He turned to the blonde to finish the job, but saw her throw a small ball at him as he faced her. At such close range, no one could dodge, and Naruto was hit in the chest squarely. He didn't expect it to expand rapidly, turning from a small sealed ball to a giant lion's maw. The lion's head pinned Naruto to the wall of the cave, and he was shocked out of Sage Mode. Not only that, all his chakra had simply stopped responding to him. He was as powerful as a newborn kitten, trapped by the Sealing Technique: Loin Closing Roar.

His blue eyes looked around frantically, barely noticing the blonde trying in vain to revive her already dead friend and settling on the furious red head limping towards him. Sand that had not been there a moment before snaked around him, forming a thin spike over his shoulder. The Kazekage, former jinchuriki of the One Tailed Beast looked at Naruto with rage filled teal eyes. "For myself, for my village, and for my friends…DIE!" Gaara shouted the last word and his sand shot forward to impale the Akatsuki member who had dared attack his village and friends.

That would have been the end of Naruto. Would have, if he hadn't been freed at the last minute. Several wooden spires shot out of the wall and dislodged the lion's maw pinning Naruto to the wall. The sand missed his head by several inches, cracking the stone wall it hit instead. Naruto immediately began to draw in more natural chakra and get the chakra he already had moving again. Naruto was joined by Deidara, who had jumped down to avoid her pursuers. She paled upon seeing the Kazekage she had killed not a day ago back from the dead and walking around.

"Thanks for the assist Zetsu. You're late though. I thought working with Sasori would instill you with a powerful sense of punctuality." said Naruto, grateful for the rescue, but still annoyed at Zetsu's tardiness.

Only Zetsu's white half emerged from the wall, grinning like an idiot. "Well it looks like I should have taken a bit longer. I'm supposed to collect a dead body."

"You were late, yeah. Somehow they brought him back to life. Guess you can explain to Sasori why he doesn't get his Kazekage." grumbled Deidara.

If Zetsu could get any paler, he would have. Sasori could get pretty violent when he was angry. "Then again, why not finish him now and we can all go home? Sound good?" asked Zetsu's white half nervously.

"We've been fighting for a while, and I'm in no condition to keep fighting long enough for the rest of the cavalry to come running. I'd say Deidara is pretty worn out as well." said Naruto. "One Tailed Beast is good enough for now. We'll get the Nine Tails some other time. Here." Naruto tossed Zetsu two scrolls from his tattered cloak. "These should make it up to Sasori; one for our mistake and one for yours."

Zetsu tipped an imaginary hat to the duo and faded back into the wall. Deidara tossed out a small bird and made a seal to make it grow. The two hopped onto the hawk that emerged from the smoke. The Leaf ninja weren't about to let them leave so easily, nor was the formerly deceased Kazekage. His sand shot forward, but was stopped by a mass of locusts that emerged from Deidara's left palm and exploded violently. No one was hurt by the bombs, but by the time the explosions subsided, the two Akatsuki members had disappeared without a trace, leaving the survivors to mourn the lives lost to them. Sakura, who had died healing the Kazekage from death, and Granny Chiyo, who had given her life to save Gaara's.

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"I can't help but notice a distinct lack of Kazekage. What happened Zetsu?" asked Sasori. The puppeteer was outside of his armored shell to work on the incoming corpse that would apparently not be arriving.

"**The Hidden Leaf is what happened.**" responded Zetsu's black half angrily. "Now now, that's no excuse to rude, and it's no reason to be sad. Look what we got for you instead!" interjected his lighter half. Sasori caught the two scrolls and looked in stunned silence at the kanji on them.

"Mother and Father. My first puppets…" Sasori quickly broke himself out of the past and pocketed the scrolls. "I'll let it slide, but only because three hundred is a better number than two hundred and ninety nine."

Zetsu let out a sigh of relief, which his dark half scoffed at. "**What now?** We still have no idea where the Three Tails is, and I haven't come across any leads." asked Zetsu.

"I might have a spy who has some information on that front. I'm set to meet with him in ten days at Tenchi Bridge. Perhaps a snake can shed some light on the turtle." Zetsu could understand the turtle perfectly well, but he had only one idea of who might be a snake. To be honest, the idea made him a tad nervous.

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**A/N: Chapter nine up! Wooo! This chapter was bit rushed, since I'm actually gone today and updating from my phone. As for questions this week, I do have plans for Orochimaru, but too many villains would muddy the plot so his role will be rather minor for a while yet. Naruto might learn a clone jutsu as a basic staple of any ninja, but he won't abuse them by any means. The Rasengan is known only by Jiraiya, and he and Naruto more or less have a showdown of destiny coming up in a while, so Jiraiya won't exactly be teaching him the legacy of the Fourth Hokage. Hope you enjoyed and reviews are always appreciated. See ya!**


	10. Chapter 10

Dawn's Sage

Chapter 10

Tenchi Bridge was one of the three vital pathways into the Land of Grass, and it had been built to last. The three bridges spanned the deep ravines that riddled the country's borders, providing entry for merchants and civilians. Ninja didn't need to bother with the bridges, as they could simply cross the ravines like they weren't even there, but to the less militant minded the bridges were vital paths that connected the land to its three neighbors. The Land of Rain lay to the south, the Land of Fire to the east, and the Land of Earth in the northwest.

Kannabi Bridge had been destroyed during the last war, and the Land of Grass had been glad to be rid of any connection to the nation that had occupied them not so long ago. Hozukijo Bridge passed right past the infamous prison of the same name, and was rarely traveled, especially since travelers from the Land of Rain had been scarce in recent years. Tenchi Bridge however remained a well traveled route, though it wasn't uncommon to find it empty. The Land of Grass had few reasons to visit in the first place.

It was the lack of enemy ninja presence and presence of the bridge itself that convinced Sasori that Tenchi Bridge would be a good place to meet his spy. Kabuto Yakushi had been an accomplished spy for the Hidden Leaf when he had appeared in the Hidden Sand. His alibi and back story had been watertight, which made Sasori suspicious. More digging had revealed that Kabuto, a loyal Sand ninja, had actually been a loyal Mist ninja not too long ago, and a loyal Cloud ninja before that.

It had pushed Sasori's spy network to the limits, but he had managed to track down Kabuto's origins to the Hidden Leaf. The pragmatic puppeteer wasn't one to let such talent in his field of expertise slip away, and had 'recruited' the child into his massive spy network. Kabuto had been sent to infiltrate the Hidden Rock Village, and had been good about sending reports to Sasori and the Hidden Leaf. It wouldn't do to have the Leaf grow suspicious of their spy and have him 'erased' for good.

He had done well, and Sasori had almost forgotten him when it happened. The Leaf had ordered the boy eliminated anyway, and through some contrived circumstances, he had ended up in the employ of Orochimaru. It would appear that Sasori had not been the only person keeping an eye the silver haired spy. Never one to let an opportunity pass, Sasori had tasked Kabuto Yakushi with spying on Orochimaru himself. And now he hoped that placing a mole in the snake's den would come to fruition with a lead on the Three Tails. Orochimaru was known to have spent his years after, and even before, his defection from the Hidden Leaf partaking in horrid experiments to achieve perfection.

As rare as they were, Tailed Beasts would be at least justify some looking into. These thought kept Sasori occupied as he readied his questions for his contact. He knew sneaking away from Orochimaru would be difficult, and had no wish to lose such a valuable spy, even if it meant arriving early and waiting.

He sat inside his armored puppet Hiruko, senses trained outwards and mind focused inwards until a hooded and cloaked figure flickered into existence next to him. "I trust I didn't keep you waiting too long Lord Sasori?"

"No. I arrived early. You're on time." grunted Sasori through Hiruko's armor. "I hate keeping others waiting, but I hate being kept waiting myself even more. So why don't you come out so we can start this already?"

"Kukuku." laughed a pale man as he rose from the boards of the bridge. "I thought for sure I had hidden my presence. Oh well, if Akatsuki was made of weaklings, it wouldn't be worth the effort." He stepped out of the ground entirely, long black hair cashing with his ghostly pale skin. The purple eyeliner might have been seen as feminine if it didn't draw attention to his golden eyes, the pupil a slit. The long tongue that he licked his lips with completed the appearance of a snake that had found what it wanted.

"Orochimaru." stated Sasori, as though he were interrupted by one the most feared traitors in the world on a daily basis. "Did you follow my spy here, or did he sell me out? I want to know whether there will have to be blood before we're done here, and whose it will be." Kabuto swallowed, taking a step away from his former master towards the Snake Sannin.

"No need to get antsy, Sasori." said Orochimaru. "I was just a tad interested in this Akatsuki group. They seemed like strong people, so I thought I might use them to further my own goals. Imagine my surprise when my own trusted medic was a spy for them all along. I followed him of my own accord to meet with you directly."

"Akatsuki is not a tool to be used, snake. You'd be the one more likely to end up dead if you crossed us." warned Sasori.

"I have no intention of fighting you. I was just wondering why I wasn't included. _I_ think I'd be a good addition to an organization hunting jinchuriki." said Orochimaru, examining his nails in feigned disinterest.

"Akatsuki only has ten members at any given time. And while some are full with idiots and fools, they are all full just the same. There is no room for you in Akatsuki." growled Sasori.

"Shame. I even tracked down my Tailed Beast too." said Orochimaru as he looked up from his right hand to gaze intently at Sasori with an infuriatingly cocky grin on his face. "But if Akatsuki doesn't want to know where the Three Tails is, I suppose I could find use of it for myself. Perhaps it would make a tasty soup…"

"As I said before, Akatsuki is not accepting new members. However, in exchange for the information on the Tailed Beast's whereabouts, Akatsuki will assist you in your goals, and you will be immediately inducted as a member should one of the current ones die." offered Sasori.

Orochimaru's smile got wider, if such a thing were possible. "I had hoped you would see things my way Sasori. I'll give you back your spy; Kabuto will show you where we've found the turtle. And I'll be waiting for that letter of acceptance with bated breath." Sasori would have to be deaf to miss the sarcasm and arrogance in his voice as Orochimaru's pale skin slowly turned brown and he collapsed into a puddle of mud.

"I'll have word with you about checking to be sure you aren't followed later." grunted Sasori. "For now, take me to the Tailed Beast."

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Sasuke usually hated the rain. It was wet, good for farmers he supposed, but to him it was just one more hindrance in battle. But today he didn't mind. Today, it seemed appropriate that the universe share his feelings. He stood facing the memorial stone of fallen heroes of the Hidden Leaf, staring in mute horror and agony at the name freshly carved onto it. Sakura Haruno. It was only a name, but it was a name that meant so much more than just a name, in a place it shouldn't be.

Part of him blamed Ino for not being a good enough medic, but the argument was mostly a hollow excuse to push away and wallow in his own guilt. If he had only been stronger, able to defeat Akatsuki and not be fooled by some juvenile trick like that, she might still be alive. If only his attacks had been as powerful as a sage's, he might have been able to do…something!

Lightning flashed in the background and the resounding boom of thunder shook Sasuke to his bones. His eyes, previously shut with tears, shot open in a moment of realization. He hadn't been strong enough then, but he would become stronger. Stronger than Naruto, stronger than Itachi, stronger than all of Akatsuki combined! And he would do it with the fury and power of a bolt of lightning.

The youngest living Uchiha ran off to find someone to teach him about summoning, more determined than he had been since his academy days, where he lived for Itachi's dying breath. From the trees around the memorial stone, one eye watched on, glad that his adorable little student was taking the opportunity to better himself rather than give up in despair. He had been prepared to inspire Sasuke and motivate him to beat Akatsuki, but it seemed the young Uchiha had that bit covered by himself. And Kakashi had bothered to sneak out of the hospital when he shouldn't have even been awake just for this. He would have to talk to Sasuke about needing too much surveillance later. For now, he would focus on the burning pain coming from his broken bones.

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"If I ever become a traveling hermit, I want you to kill me." complained Kisame. "This whole 'traveling where the wind takes me' crap makes it way harder to find someone that it should be."

"If you became difficult that to find I wouldn't bother hunting you down." countered Itachi. "Besides, we've found him now."

Itachi gestured to the canyon they overlooked from their vantage point. They had been traveling the Land of Earth for some time now, eager to prove themselves once more after their debacle with the Mizukage. They had managed to track Roshi, the jinchuriki of the Four Tails, across the countryside, always one step behind the wandering hermit. But now, looking down into the canyon, Kisame could see the small campfire giving off a warm light. It was the same fire that betrayed the jinchuriki's position, though Roshi probably had confidence that he could beat any simple bandits that found his campsite.

Unfortunately for him, Akatsuki was no group of bandits that had stumbled across some traveler. They were competent warriors that could decimate entire armies single handedly, coming in with full knowledge of their opponent's unique partner.

Itachi took a step forward to move in on the campsite, but was stopped by Kisame's large arm on his shoulder. "You take a nap or something, I got this." Kisame smiled at his partner's impassive face. "It's my fault that Yagura ate it anyway, so I'll handle this guy by my lonesome."

"Yes, it was your fault." despite Itachi's condemning tone, Kisame simply laughed. "I'll see you when you're done for the sealing."

"Sure thing." Kisame hefted Samehada over his shoulder and trekked into the valley to get his target. The Land of Earth's hot climate had left the canyon destitute of any plant life bigger than a shrub, and the jinchuriki spotted Kisame from some distance. Apparently news of the Kazekage's death and Akatsuki hadn't reached his ears yet, and Roshi simply sat eating his dinner as Kisame drew near.

"So, Akatsuki has found me already, eh?" Apparently word had reached him then. "I hope you'll let a doomed man finish one last meal? It'd be a shame waste a perfectly good fish." Kisame didn't reply, but he did simply stand there for a minute as Roshi finished off the last bit of his dinner.

"So are we going to do this the easy way, or the hard way? Doomed man and last meal don't sound like the words of a man who'll fight for every breath." asked Kisame, though he would eat his Akatsuki cloak if it were as simple as that.

"If it were my life on the line, I'd go quietly. I've lived longer than most people in this world have any right to." said Roshi quietly before looking up, his eyes showing his inner resolve. "But I don't think you're collecting Tailed Beasts to store in a pretty showcase. I can't allow the lives of those important to me to be endangered, so I trust you understand why I'll fight with all I have."

"Yeah, no hard feelings." said Kisame before he leveled Samehada and inch from Roshi's nose. To the red haired hermit's credit, he didn't move at all. "Just hard blows!" With that Kisame lunged forward, Samehada almost going through Roshi's face. The old jinchuriki managed to jump out of range at the last second, running through hand seals as he flew backwards.

"**Lava Style: Exploding Hell Balls!**" Roshi stomped his foot on the ground, causing several circles of rock to rise to eye level. Kisame hated Earth Style jutsu, because even if Samehada ate all the chakra behind the technique, you still had a large boulder hurtling towards you. The circles of earth bowed in the middle and launched at Kisame once they had collapsed in on themselves, leaving Kisame to stare down the balls of rock shooting towards him.

Samehada cut through the first one, and while his sword couldn't talk, Kisame could sense it complaining about the hot lava inside the sphere. The next two hurtled past him on either side harmlessly, striking where he would be if he hadn't of dodged. Kisame knew that it couldn't be that easy, and his suspicion was confirmed when the spheres of lava filled rock exploded next to his head, sending lava and rock shrapnel flying in every direction.

Kisame winced in pain as the molten rock hit the sides of his face. The burns and cuts were quickly healed by Samehada, but there was nothing stopping them from hurting in the meantime. When Kisame opened his eyes, he saw a wave of lava bearing down on him. He tossed Samehada into the air and sprinted through the hand seals of his own technique. He finished, and didn't waste any time balancing his chakra for maximum chakra efficiency.

"**Water Style: Exploding Water Shockwave!**" Thousands of gallons of water were vomited out of Kisame mouth, and he was soon standing on top of a tidal wave of equal size to the molten death coming towards him. Kisame caught Samehada and balanced the deadly blade on his shoulder. The two waves collided with a hiss of steam. Kisame was trained to fight in the mist though, and that gave him a distinct advantage.

Or so he thought. Kisame ran at the jinchuriki, drawing back Samehada to drain his chakra. He went for the legs, and was shocked when Roshi jumped. The old man's foot became cloaked in a noxious red chakra before it shot out at Kisame's face. The shark managed to get a hand between the blow and his face, but he still went flying back. Kisame dug Samehada into the ground to slow himself down and landed on his feet.

"How were you able to sense me in the mist? I'm one of the best in the world at Silent Killing." asked Kisame. The Four Tail's chakra had receded almost immediately, which made Kisame think that perhaps the old man couldn't use the chakra for more than a second.

"The earth is my ally, and you might have well been an earthquake heading towards me." answered Roshi. "But I see you aren't an opponent I can hold back on…much." With that, Roshi was engulfed in a torrent of red. When the aura around him died down somewhat, Kisame noticed that he had one tail sprouting from his lower back. On top of that, his skin actually appeared to be made of lava.

The two men ran towards each other, Kisame drawing back his sword and Roshi preparing a simple punch. A punch coated in lava, but still a punch. Once they reached each other, Kisame swung downwards in an overhead strike that Roshi easily dodged. Kisame used Samehada as a lever to lift himself up and over the punch that Roshi threw, though he was unprepared for Roshi's new tail to swing up and give him a smack in the face.

The lava armor burned, and the impact from the tail launched Kisame backwards, Samehada barely staying in his hand. Roshi stepped forward, hopefully to gloat so Kisame could have time to heal his injuries. "You don't stand a chance against a jinchuriki at one tail, and this isn't even my final form. You'll need to send someone more experienced to deal with me." Roshi rushed forward, but Kisame's burns had already healed. Expecting his opponent to be writhing on the ground in pain, Roshi was taken by surprise when Kisame leapt up and hit him in the stomach with Samehada.

The shark sword was stopped by Roshi's Lava Armor, but Kisame quickly flipped the jinchuriki, using his beloved sword like a common bandit's club. Samehada still ate all of Roshi's spicy chakra though, and the jinchuriki landed without his cloak of lava, though relatively unharmed. "That's one nasty sword. Let's see how much chakra it can absorb though!" Roshi's chakra flared once again, the sheer force cracking the ground beneath him. Four tails emerged this time, and Kisame readied his Water Prison Shark Dance, though he was still hoping to avoid using it.

"**Flower-Fruit Mountain!**" Roshi slammed his hands on the ground, and the ground beneath Kisame began to buckle upwards. The Akatsuki member's eyes widened as he felt the heat from the ground a moment before it broke. The area had temporarily been turned into a volcano, and the eruption sent massive quantities of lava shooting upwards.

Kisame ran spat up a massive dome of water as Samehada fused to his body. A tail emerged from the Tailless Tailed Beast's back as his hands developed webbing. Fins grew from his arms and head and his whole demeanor became more shark-like. The volcanic eruption below and the small ocean above canceled each other out in a massive amount of steam. The two monsters didn't wait for it to clear up before they attacked though.

"**Water Style:** **Aqua Jet!**" Kisame shot a jet of concentrated water from his mouth as Roshi ran at him, covered entirely in his Tailed Beast's chakra. The Hidden Rock ninja rolled out of the way easily, a testament to his years of experience. Roshi finished his seals as he righted himself.

"**Lava Style: Fire Pledge!**" a plume of lava erupted from the ground in front of Roshi. Kisame was confused by such a useless attack, when another pillar of lava shot up from the ground, this time a little bit closer. Within seconds, the columns of fire had shot towards Kisame, swerving before they hit him to encircle him with the flames. Kisame felt the ground beneath him flare with chakra, indicating a finishing plume much more powerful than the ones meant to entrap him.

It burned like hell, but Kisame leapt through the ring of fire that surrounded him. Samehada healed his wounds; or rather he did, since he and Samehada were one being at the moment. The sizzling stopped as the final burns were healed. Kisame looked up to see a lava armored jinchuriki in his face, jaw opened to unrealistic proportions and about to take a large bite out the Akatsuki member. "**Fire Style: Fire Fang!**" Somehow Roshi managed to call out his attack even when his mouth was open wide enough to swallow Kisame's head. The shark man acted on instinct, and his thick tail smacked Roshi away. The Lava Armor left some bad burns on his tail, but Kisame ignored it. The burns would heal soon enough; right now he had to get the momentum of the fight back on his side. While Roshi was still recovering from the blow, Kisame formed a quick seal and spat out a small volume of water.

Roshi righted himself to land on his feet, though the speed of his travel had him skidding short distance. He looked at Kisame to see the man rushing him with Samehada back in his hands. The sword had seemed vital to Kisame's fighting strategy, which is why Roshi wasn't expecting Kisame to throw the sword at him like a large shuriken. The strategy was effective though, and Roshi was smacked across the face with the blade. Kisame rushed in immediately afterwards to press his advantage, delivering a solid blow to Roshi's face, which had been robbed of its protective and destructive chakra by Samehada's appetite.

The blow sent Roshi flying back head over heels, but his decades of experience wouldn't been beaten that easily. His tails quickly righted him as the burning chakra covered his face once again. The rage of the Four Tails was telling him to rush recklessly, but he had been using the Tailed Beast's chakra for decades now and had gotten pretty good at suppressing his more primal instincts. Still, he would have to end this quickly before he became unable to use his demon's chakra. It gave him strength and stamina, but it also robbed him of a clear mind and slowly burned away his body.

Kisame had decided to end it as well, and was running through the seals for one of his most powerful techniques, a jutsu he had actually developed to kill the Mizukage. It was only after developing the technique that he realized that Yagura would have brushed off a Water Style attack like it wasn't even there. Roshi noticed that Kisame no longer had Samehada near him to heal his wounds and eat the chakra of his enemies. Realizing this was his best chance, he rushed at the Akatsuki member. Just as he started running, Kisame finished the seals for the technique, now he only had to charge it. He brought his hands to his hips and started the final steps of the technique. Cupping his hands together, he channeled all his chakra to the space between his hands. "**Tuuuurrrrrtle…**"

A small blue orb of flame vaporous, unaltered chakra formed between Kisame's hands as Roshi closed about half of the gap. Kisame ignored this to focus on the next part. He concentrated on converting the massive amount of chakra into Water Chakra. Nature transformation of this scale was difficult in the extreme, but the orb took on a deeper blue hue and felt more solid than it had a second ago. "**Destruuuucctiiiiooonnn…**"

Roshi had him. Kisame was unarmed a few feet away, and Roshi swung his arm to deliver a blow strong enough to decapitate the shark man before him. He was surprised when his hand passed harmlessly a few inches from Kisame's face. Looking backwards to check what had stopped him, he saw Kisame atop his sword, which had been driven through one of his tails. The blade was drawing his chakra out, and Roshi's other three tails shot out to impale the Kisame holding the sword. The appendages succeeded, but Kisame simply dissolved into water grinning as they ran him through. Roshi's dulled mind felt happy that it had killed the Akatsuki member, but as Samehada continued to rob him of his demonic shield, his senses cleared. But not soon enough.

Kisame finished his technique with the easiest of all the steps. He simply released the energy built up in a directed beam of death. Figuratively of course, since Roshi dying would be very bad. Kisame thrust his hands out in front of him, palms facing his opponent like his signature Super Water Shark Bomb. "**WAAAAAVVVVVEEEEEEE!**"

The orb of condensed Water Chakra burst outwards at Roshi, hitting him point blank and engulfing him completely. After several seconds, the beam subsided to reveal that Roshi had been blasted several hundred meters. The jinchuriki had been driven into a wall of cooled magma, from his first attack of the battle ironically enough, leaving a human shaped imprint around the unconscious, or dead, jinchuriki. Kisame really hoped it was the former.

The Akatsuki member took a step forward and almost collapsed from sheer exhaustion. The Turtle Destruction Wave was a powerful technique, but it was slow and took almost all of his chakra. He managed to catch himself on Samehada's handle, and stolen chakra flooded into his system. It was no substitute for a good night's sleep, but it would keep him up and running for a while longer. He walked up to his Akatsuki cloak, which he had discarded sometime in the course of the heated battle to fuse with Samehada more easily.

After donning the article of clothing that declared his allegiances like his headband used to, Kisame walked up to the bearded jinchuriki and poked him in the stomach with Samehada. The light touch was enough to dislodge the body from the rock, and Roshi fell onto Kisame's blade. He groaned as Kisame swung the sword up over his shoulder for easy transport of the body, reassuring Kisame of the jinchuriki's continued life. For a little bit longer anyway. This manner of carrying the body had the fortuitous side effect of constantly draining the man's chakra to keep him sedated.

Kisame trekked back to the ridge where he had left Itachi, and wasn't surprised to see that the Uchiha had only moved to sit down on a large rock. Kisame decided to inform Itachi of the painfully obvious, just to annoy his stoic partner. "Well, I got the old geezer, but he sure put up a fight." Kisame punctuated the sentence by tossing Roshi's body onto the ground in front of Itachi.

"Don't complain. You were the one who wanted to go alone. If we had gone together, he wouldn't have lasted a second." said Itachi, his black eyes betraying no emotion. Kisame's partner looked down at the body in front of him. "Shouldn't you show a bit of respect to the elderly?"

"Hah! Don't let his age fool you. This old guy isn't one to be taken lightly. I almost had to use a tenth of my full power against him." His bragging managed to get a light groan out of Itachi. It wasn't much, but Kisame would take what he could get from a former ANBU captain.

"Let's get a move on. We have a jinchuriki to seal, then we take out my target. Luckily the Five Tails is also located in the Land of Earth, so we won't have far to go." said Itachi as Kisame lifted Roshi once more with Samehada. The duo walked off, sending a message that they had procured one of the targets.

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Sasori and Zetsu were rather annoyed. Orochimaru's tip had proven accurate, but the location that it had led them was rather frustrating.

"Soooooo," began Zetsu, beating around the bush, "I don't suppose… **do you have any puppets that can swim?**"

"No. And I'm guessing your underground transportation won't assist in getting the Three Tails out of the lake either." grumbled Sasori, who was grumbling even inside Hiruko.

"**No.**" responded Zetsu. "I may have something that could help, but I'm still ironing out the details." The Akatsuki team stopped arguing and stood intently listening to something in perfect unison. A second or two passed, and they both relaxed once more.

"Ponder it all you like over the next three days." replied Sasori as he emerged from his puppet shell. He pulled out a scroll and began to tinker with one of his newer puppets, installing the hidden weapons. "We have some time to burn apparently."

"Who do you think it was?" asked Zetsu, though in typical fashion, he answered his own question. "**It doesn't matter who got which jinchuriki. We got one, that's all that matters.**"

"Just be ready to capture the Three Tails after the sealing." interjected Sasori. After listening to Zetsu argue with himself for hours when they had first been paired together, Sasori had learned quickly to stop the… two? one?... if he didn't want his time being wasted. And he never wanted his time to be wasted. Sasori pulled a scroll out of his cloak and opened it to remove one of his backup organs. "Here."

Zetsu reached over and grabbed the juicy spleen and began to eat as Sasori worked on his puppet, the two passing the time until the sealing began.

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"Damn it Kakuzu! Why you old fuckers so slow all the time? We should already be done with this shitty 'take them alive' business, but nooooo, you just have to stop and kill anyone with a bounty on their head big enough to buy a bowl of ramen! Now someone else got another jinchuriki, and we're still trekking to the Hidden Cloud." complained Hidan.

"Hidan. Shut up, or I'll kill you." said Kakuzu, not bothering to hide his annoyance.

"Ha! If you could kill me, I'd welcome it! Besides, you're just pissed because you know I'm right." said Hidan. "Say, who do you think it is this time?"

"I do not care."

"Shame, I recently came across a hefty sum of cash off of a gambler's corpse. I was hoping to gamble it away on bets and the like to keep the spirit alive, but I guess no one wants to take a gamble around here. Even if it means winning… large… amounts… of cash." said Hidan, drawing out the last word for emphasis.

"I'd wager it was Kisame and Itachi, now how much money are we talking about?" answered Kakuzu.

"Hah, I knew you'd come around! For a _very_ large amount of dough, my guess is Sasori and Zetsu. He'd hate to be the last one to catch his target, since it would mean making others wait." laughed Hidan. "I don't want money though. If I win, I get to mutilate the next bounty we find, beyond recognition. It's been too long since my last complete tribute, and my life depends on Lord Jashin's favor."

"You're insane to think anything could be more powerful than money, but I'll accept those terms. Now let's find somewhere out of the way to be during the sealing." retorted Kakuzu as he and Hidan made their way towards the Land of Lightning. Hidan's target was the Two Tails, and Kakuzu would pray to Jashin before his team was the last to collect their Tailed Beast.

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Ino was inconsolable after Sakura's death. She spent most of her time crying in her room or visiting Kakashi at the hospital. The jonin's ribs had been shattered and his internal organs had practically been liquefied; it was only because of Tsunade's unparalleled medical skill that his ninja career had survived. She had been so furious at him for sneaking out of the hospital early, the Hokage had almost forgotten the loss of her apprentice temporarily. But Sakura's death was inescapable.

Ino had gotten better though. The pain was still there, but it wasn't as raw as it had been. The blonde Yamanaka had decided that morning to check up on her other teammate, and console Sasuke as best she could. This was more difficult than she had thought, since Sasuke had apparently not just been sitting at home like she had. Kakashi had only seen the Uchiha when he had barged in and more or less interrogated Kakashi on all he knew about summoning. Kakashi had referred him to the retired Third Hokage, and Sasuke hadn't been seen since.

The Third Hokage had been about as much help as Kakashi had on Ino's search. Sasuke had approached the elderly 'God of Ninja' several days ago and asked once more about summoning. The old man had summoned a small monkey for the last loyal Uchiha, as he did then for Ino. The critter was absolutely adorable, but Sasuke hadn't been looking for a cute pet. He was referred to Tsunade, as she was the summoner of the slugs, a near indestructible, acid spewing, absolutely massive summon.

Tsunade had seen the Uchiha the same day as her predecessor. He had told her that he was doing summon research to avenge Sakura, and she had told him everything he wanted to know and then some. The slugs were strong, but they were mostly healers. At this rate, Sasuke had apparently despaired of inheriting a summoning contract that fit him perfectly. When Sasuke asked how Tsunade had procured her summoning contract, he was disappointed to learn that the Slug Summoning Contract was a Senju clan heirloom. As the only living Senju, Tsunade had inherited it from her ancestors.

Ino had then traced Sasuke to Jiraiya of the Sannin. Tsunade had mentioned that she had no idea how here orphaned teammate had procured his summoning contract. When Ino found the pervert, peeping at the hot springs no less, he had treated her to a story about how he found his summoning contract in return for her silence on the matter. Sasuke had apparently gotten the same deal earlier today, and had upheld his end of the bargain. She had still punted him over the barrier into hot water, both literally and figuratively. Still, the story had been interesting, not that she planned to summon herself to the lair of some deadly summon creature. But she knew someone who might just be that desperate.

She headed to her team's training ground, where she saw Sasuke practicing some jutsu or another. She couldn't name it, but something held her back from making her presence known. Perhaps it was Sasuke's look of sheer concentration, or maybe the fact that she had some idea as to what he was up to. Sasuke finished the short series of seals and slammed his palms on the ground. Even from across the training ground, Ino heard the name of the technique he had just used. "**Reverse Summoning Technique!**" Ino finally gained the courage to approach her teammate, but by then he had disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

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Sasuke opened his eyes, Sharingan spinning. He remembered Jiraiya's warning, and as despicable he was as a human being, he was a damn good ninja. Just because Jiraiya had befriended his summons within minutes of arriving, Sasuke may have entered the lair of some deadly beast that wanted no relations with him past dinner. Several seconds passed, and Sasuke allowed himself to sheath his sword and take in his surroundings.

He found himself with very little to look at beyond the sky. On and impulse, he looked down, and his eyes widened in wonder. He was at the peak of a large mountain that rose above the clouds. Mountain was generous though; the rock he was standing on was better described as a spire, jutting up from the earth to awe inspiring heights. Looking around, Sasuke saw smaller spires shooting up out of the cloud cover several hundred feet below him.

A loud cawing noise drew his attention upwards once more. Sasuke wondered briefly what could possibly be higher than him, and his question was answered a second later. A large hawk swept down at him, striking out with razor sharp talons. Sasuke managed to block the strike with his sword, but the impact still drove him off the edge of the rocky pinnacle. Deciding to cut his losses, Sasuke let the hawk carry his sword off as he landed vertically on the rock face.

His Sharingan noticed the otherwise invisible blades of wind coming to chop him into mince meat. There were many blades arrayed in seemingly no order at all, which would have made them impossible to dodge. Unless one had all seeing eyes. Sasuke weaved and dodged around the rocky peak, avoiding every blade of wind that left deep gouges in the rock. He looked up to see the hawk from earlier beat its wings once more with a loud cry. He dodged all of these ones too, but they distracted him from the hawk moving upwards.

The bird fell into a steep dive at Sasuke. The Uchiha's Sharingan was all that allowed him to track the fast movement. He managed to jump off of the rock face in time to dodge the speeding predator. He locked eyes with the winged beast as it passed him, and time seemed to stop as he gazed into the golden eyes of the brown bird. Deciding that slicing off one of the hawk's wings wouldn't earn its respect as, Sasuke settled for a simple genjutsu. Simple for the Sharingan anyway; it was likely no normal genjutsu user would achieve a genjutsu of this level in their lifetime.

The bird's eyes had three dots come into being, making it closely resemble a golden version of the Sharingan as it swooped around to catch Sasuke on its back. The bird then flew off to carry Sasuke off to the tallest of the spires, which was amazingly carved into a tower at the highest levels. The bird landed on the top, which was a large nest. Sasuke wondered why the bird flew him here when it flew away. The bird had the decency to leave behind his sword, which he appreciated.

Sasuke had no idea what he should do when a large mound on the other side of the nest moved. The mound revealed itself to be an enormous hawk which simply gazed at Sasuke for a short time. The Uchiha was really hoping the bird didn't attack him, since he was still winded from his previous fight at such a high altitude. Luckily, the hawk made the first move, and it wasn't one to eat him.

"I can't remember the last time the hawks had a visitor that was anything more than a tasty snack. Why have you come here?" asked the bird. Sasuke was taken aback, both because the hawk had talked, and because it sounded distinctly female. He had known summons could talk, but the previous hawk's simply screeches had led him to believe the Hawks were less intelligent than other summons like the Toads or Slugs.

Sasuke started when he realized that the large female hawks was waiting for his response, and looking hungrier every second she was kept waiting. "I need a summon capable of matching the level of the opponents I face. A summon that can teach me about Sage Mode." answered Sasuke.

The hawk's eyes narrowed. "Sage Mode is one of the most guarded secrets of the summons. Only a few know of its existence, even fewer know how to use it. Besides, you would have to be the summoner of whatever creature decided to teach you."

"So do you know how to use Sage Mode? I'll agree to be your summoner if you're willing to teach me." responded Sasuke, allowing a tinge of hope to seep into his voice.

"You are in no position to be taught anything except what the inside of a raptor looks like!" shrieked the large bird of prey. Their high pitched calls did not lend themselves well to low tones and shouting. Sasuke placed his hand on his sword, ready to retreat at a moment's notice. Luckily the female hawk calmed down rather quickly as seemingly became lost in thought. "Still, Takamaru attests to the sharpness of your eyes. Out of respect for your prowess, I'll offer you a deal."

"What kind of deal?" asked Sasuke warily, though he took a step away from the edge of the nest towards the hawk.

"If you agree to be our summoner or not, we will let you go. If you become our summoner though, we will teach you Sage Mode if we know it. You run the risk of simply getting one of the hundreds of summons that know nothing about the workings of Sage Mode, but you will not sign another contract until death. That is the deal. Do we have an agreement?" asked the hawk. She reached into the tangled mess of twigs and feathers and withdrew a scroll with her beak. It was tiny compared to her, but was probably a meter across and who knew how long.

Sasuke looked down at the scroll, and raised his hand to his mouth. He bit down hard, and blood ran freely from his thumb. "Where do I sign?"

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**A/N: Chapter ten up! Woooo! See, I told you I had plans for Orochimaru, just not big ones. Props to anyone who gets the reference that is Kisame's attack. Given who he was fighting, I thought it was appropriate. Question time. Sora is kind of like canon Naruto, but that's who he is. Changing Sora's personality would just make him some random OC, and I'm not going there. As for why I included him at all, it was him or Kinkaku and Ginkaku, which would be incredibly convoluted to stitch together. As for why Sage Mode Naruto hasn't been killing people by breathing, people in Naruto survive incredibly powerful blows all the time. Look at Deva Path Pain. The Preta Path got destroyed like it did because it was a direct hit that was also a surprise attack. Head shots are also more dangerous than body blows, but they still hurt, ergo Kakashi's wounds. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and reviews are always appreciated. See ya!**


	11. Chapter 11

Dawn's Sage

Chapter 11

"GODDAMNITAHIT! How do you know this kind of shit?!"

"Language, Hidan." Kakuzu wasn't usually one for jokes, but the big payday in his immediate future was enough to lift even his spirits. "Sasori and Zetsu still had to find their target, it wasn't you and me, and I doubt even Naruto and Deidara are ambitious enough to go for two Tailed Beasts in a row. Or at least not skilled enough to succeed in the attempt. That left Itachi and Kisame as the logical choice. I'll take my 'large sum of cash' after the sealing."

"You guys made another bet? I'm almost afraid to guess who Hidan picked." mumbled Naruto.

"I put my faith in you two pansies, and you let me down. Do you know how much I owe Kakuzu now? A large sum of cash! That's a large sum!" shouted the silver haired immortal, though his pink eyes were the only discernible feature through the projection technique. Hidan's loud ranting was almost enough to drown out the pained groans of the dying man in front of them, but Roshi's pain had practically become background noise at this point.

"A large sum of cash?" asked Deidara. One could almost see the eyebrow being raised. "Did you even bother to count this 'large sum' of money?"

"Yeah of course I did! It was just more than I could count though." Hidan trailed off before defending his monetary prowess as loudly as he could. "It was more than twenty though. I ran out of fingers _and_ toes!"

"Wow that is a lot!" replied Zetsu earnestly. "**You're both morons.** Say, how would you deal with an opponent hiding in the bottom of a lake?" Zetsu's white side decided to change to topic towards something hopefully beneficial.

"You found the Three Tails?" Any snarky responses were stopped dead in their tracks by the voice of Pain.

"Y-yes, but the dumb turtle is at the bottom of a lake, we can't reach it." stammered Zetsu. "**Overwatering is nasty way to go.**"

"Poison won't work on the beast, and my selection of submersible puppets is limited." added Sasori.

"I see." said Pain, shocking the other eight members of Akatsuki. Konan never seemed surprised by Pain and the others were generally unflappable, but Akatsuki's leader had only ever responded to failure with annoyance or anger. "Zetsu. Use 'that' technique to remove the obstruction to Akatsuki's goals."

"**Are you sure?**" A look from the ringed eyes of God answered his question. "**Understood. **What technique are you talking about? Are you keeping secrets from me? From ME?" The others ignored Zetsu who continued to argue with himself for the rest of the sealing. Roshi collapsed to the floor, and Akatsuki dismissed themselves after making sure that their leader had nothing more to say.

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Sasori opened his eyes for the first time in three days, or rather Hiruko did, since Sasori had been unable to move the puppet armor while sealing the Tailed Beast. "So what is this technique that will help us capture the Three Tails?"

"I'd like to know that too." Zetsu's upper body emerged from a tree, and while his white side seemed genuinely irked, his black half didn't seem to care. "**You'll see.**"

Zetsu split down the middle into two different beings, each a different color. Sasori had never seen Zetsu do this, but he had stopped being surprised by his partner years ago. Black Zetsu walked to the ledge overlooking the lake and clasped his hand together as if in prayer. His legs transformed into the roots of a tree and dug into the ground. Given Zetsu's plant-like appearance, Sasori wasn't surprised at all. White Zetsu simply glared at his other half and tapped his foot impatiently.

"**Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence!**" Sasori was surprised by the technique's name, but he was rendered speechless as enormous trees emerged from the depths of the lake carrying a large turtle tied up half out of the water. Sasori recovered quickly and resolved to discover why his partner had the First Hokage's jutsu later. For now he settled for unveiling his favorite puppet to demonstrate that finesse and skill could beat any amount of brute force.

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"Kakuzu, are we there yet?" whined Hidan as the two trekked through the mountain peaks of the Land of Lightning.

"No." Kakuzu's reply was short and economical, answering the question perfectly and leaving no room for a follow up.

"Kakuzu, are we there yet?" Apparently Hidan was too idiotic to realize that Kakuzu had already answered his question. Either that or he didn't care, which was more likely.

"No. Now would you kindly shut up for the remainder of our trip? I'd prefer to gather m thoughts before facing a demon in her own home." snapped Kakuzu after being forced to answer the same moronic question for the five hundredth time. He was still furious at Hidan for the thirty ryō payday he had gotten from their little wager. Kakuzu supposed he should be grateful to have money of any value, but his hopes had been raised by his partner. It was a mistake he wouldn't repeat in the future.

"Oh, so the jinchuriki's a girl, huh?" said Hidan, taking Kakuzu's extra comments and running with them. "Been a while since I killed a bitch. Like, what? Two weeks? Three?"

"Eighteen days. And we aren't killing the jinchuriki. Unless you want to face Leader's wrath by yourself." replied Kakuzu, resigning himself to petty conversation with an idiot.

"I wouldn't be alone!" objected Hidan. "You're my partner, right? You wouldn't heartlessly stand by while I was being attacked, would you?" Hidan leaned into Kakuzu's shoulder wearing a wide grin.

"You're right, I wouldn't stand by." Hidan stood up and looked at Kakuzu strangely. He joked around, but he had though Kakuzu didn't care at all. The fact that he would stand up for Hidan really surprised the Jashinist. "I'd by as stupid as you if I didn't join Leader."

Glad for his immortality, Hidan broke into laughter. "There's the Kakuzu I know! I thought you were getting soft for a second there." Wiping a tear from his eye, Hidan decided for the annoying coup de grace. "Anyway, Kakuzu, are we there yet?"

"YES, YOU IDIOT!" Kakuzu's outburst was accompanied by explosive action. He turned around, grabbed Hidan's head, and threw him through the doors of a large building Hidan hadn't noticed in one fluid motion. Kakuzu calmly walked through the debris like nothing had happened as Hidan got up and dusted himself off.

"Man, you can be a real ass sometimes, you know that?" grumbled Hidan. "Where is this bitch we have to capture anyway?" Kakuzu wordlessly grabbed Hidan's head and turned his gaze towards a blonde woman standing in the room they had entered rather forcibly. She looked back at the two Akatsuki immortals before turning to sprint down one of the long hallways of the building.

"Well there goes any hope of an easy capture. Let's go." ordered Kakuzu as he took off after the blonde, Hidan right on his tail. The two chased the girl down the long hallway, which led them further downwards into another tunnel, this one with several inches of water

"The fuck? Kakuzu, what the hell is this place?" yelled Hidan, getting a nasty feeling in his gut about their location already.

"I believe we're going down a sewer maintenance line." informed Kakuzu calmly.

"God damn it!" shouted Hidan. "Let's just end this shit quickly." Hidan threw his triple bladed scythe at the Hidden Cloud jinchuriki still fleeing from them. The red weapon flew far further and straighter than it had any right too, and the blonde jonin was only able to dodge it once they entered a larger tunnel that seemed to be where the rest of the sewer tunnels connected. Even with the extra maneuvering room, she barely managed to evade the deadly weapon.

"You missed." informed Kakuzu. "And you call yourself a member of Akatsuki."

"Shut the fuck up Kakuzu!" shouted Hidan. A flick of his wrist yanked the scythe back into his hand by the thick cable attached to the weapon's bottom. Hidan looked away from his partner to address the girl they had been pursuing, who had inexplicably stopped to face them. "Good job getting out of the way of my attack, but I am the slowest member of Akatsuki. I just can't hit anything, can I?"

"Hey, Hidan. She's the Two Tails Jinchuriki." said Kakuzu, turning to his partner. "You'll die if you get careless and tell her all your weaknesses like that."

"Don' give me that shit Kakuzu." said Hidan. He turned to face the target, though he continued to address Kakuzu. "If she could kill me, I'd welcome it."

So you are Akatsuki. I knew something was up when I got this mission. The Hidden Cloud would never risk one of their jinchuriki like this. But now that I know you're Akatsuki, I can't let you leave here alive!" One hand seal later, and all the explosive notes that had been hidden in the entry arches to the main sewer line exploded, sealing the entrances and exits with walls of rubble. "I'll kill you here and now."

"Oh, well that happened." said Hidan. "I'd suggest another course of action though. When people get all enthusiastic about fighting and killing, I get all excited bout fighting and killing. I go like 'screw the objective, I just want to kill everything!' It's an awesome feeling, but we have to take you alive and all, so maybe we could just talk this over?"

"Talk this over?" asked the jinchuriki incredulously.

"Yeah. This whole 'not killing thing goes against my religion entirely. I may not look it, but I'm a very devout man. And if there's one thing Jashinism is all about, it's killing. Leaving you alive after fighting you would just be wrong. Maybe you could just come quietly?" asked Hidan.

"Are you stupid?" asked both the target and Kakuzu at the same time. The Hidden Cloud ninja was the only one to continue from there though. "In the name of Yugito Nii of the Hidden Cloud, I will kill you!"

The water at her feet, which had previously been calmly rippling, began to shoot up violently from the sheer force of her chakra. Kakuzu took the time to ready himself, while Hidan was standing completely silent with his necklace raised to his forehead in prayer to Jashin. Yugito's hair tie snapped, allowing her blonde hair to stand on end as if she were standing on a large fan. Blue, flame-like chakra erupted from her body. It took the form of a two tailed cat made entirely of blue flames, giving the demon a wraith-like appearance. It's eyes, one green and one yellow, gazed down at the Akatsuki members it now dwarfed.

"Hey Kakuzu." said Hidan, finishing up his prayer. "It looks like she's more of a pussy than a bitch!" Hidan's quip was punctuated by a large paw made entirely of chakra smashing him into the concrete floor. The cat's maw opened wide and shot an enormous fireball at Kakuzu point blank. Kakuzu hardened his skin with a single hand seal to survive the blast, but the building the sewer line was housed under didn't, and exploded violently.

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Finesse and skill were all well and good, but the brute force of a Tailed Beast was a tad more massive than any mere ninja, a fact that Sasori was learning the hard way. Zetsu's unexplained Wood Style had turned the lake into a forest and pulled the Three Tails from the depths, but it had apparently drained a good deal of his chakra, and Black Zetsu was resting on the shore of the tree infested lake. White Zetsu had grown an army of clones to assist in the fight, drawing their sustenance from the chakra of the Three Tails itself, and they were all busy absorbing as much chakra as they could. The downside was that the White Zetsu clones were designed to siphon chakra from ninja for the purpose of impersonation. Their purpose was subterfuge, not all out combat against demons.

Which left the task up to Sasori and his puppets. Hiruko's poisoned weapons would be little good against the armored turtle, as would his Red Army. That left him three options: his two favorite puppets or himself. Using himself was out of the question, and he preferred to use only one of his puppets at a time when going for brute force so he would be better able to control them. Many fingers make for good control of weaponized corpses as the saying goes. And Sasori had to say, the Third Kazekage's famed Iron Sand was holding its own against the Tailed Beast.

"**Iron Sand: Six Inch Nail!**" The black grains came together into three large spikes that launched themselves at the Three Tails. Sasori had no idea why half of the Kazekage's techniques were called what they were, but the stupid names had worked for the Kazekage, so they would work for him. Even if the spikes were clearly longer than six inches and shaped nothing like nails. Perhaps he would change that one.

Two of the spikes dug into the relatively unarmored undersides of the beast's tails, and the other one broke uselessly on the closed shell that guarded the turtle's vulnerable eye. The shell opened up to reveal the one eyed face of the Three Tails, which opened its mouth to roar a challenge at the pests that had dared to pull it out of the lake it had made to rest in and then attack it. The roar ended with a large ball of water being shot at Sasori, who was perched on one of the large tree branches that now coated the lake. The Water Bullet tore up those branches as it hurtled towards Sasori.

"**Iron Sand: Black Mountain Range!**" The defensive jutsu in question was simply a big block of iron sand meant to stop attacks, and looked nothing like a mountain range at all. Despite the idiotic name bestowed upon it by the greatest Kazekage in history, the jutsu still did its job and stopped the Water Bullet dead in its tracks. The water likely washed off all of Sasori's poison, which annoyed the puppeteer, but not nearly as much as if one of his puppets had been destroyed by the attack.

Sasori allowed himself a smirk as his plan entered its next phase. "**Iron Sand: World Method!**" What did that even mean? No wonder Sasori never could stand the Third Kazekage. Regardless of the moronic name that graced it, the World Method caused the two spikes of iron sand embedded in the tails of the Tailed Beast to explode outwards from the middle, where they intersected the inside of the turtle's shell. The Three Tails roared in pain as its tails were utterly decimated by the sand running along their lengths. The third tail shot at Sasori, who was forced to move from his place on the tree's branches. The turtle seemed to have some intelligence in its one visible eye as it shot another Water Bullet the size of a cathedral at Sasori midair.

Sasori didn't feel like wasting chakra on another Black Mountain Range, and settled on avoiding the attack by pulling himself downwards by the chakra strings connected to the Third Kazekage below. He was a tad too slow however, and the bottom edge of the jutsu blew his head clean off his shoulders and sent it flying. Most ninja would be dead, but Sasori was member of Akatsuki. As such, he was decidedly not normal. A chakra string emerged from his headless body and connected to the red haired head. The head came flying back to him, and snapped right back into place, if backwards. Sasori's head spun right around so the Three Tails could see just how irritated he was.

The puppeteer's brown eyes narrowed as the Third Kazekage's iron sand rained down from above in fist sized balls. "**Iron Sand: Drizzle!**" That did it, Sasori was going to rename every last one of these stupid jutsu. The 'Drizzle' technique did little more than annoy the Three Tails, since the beast managed to close the armor over its face in time. Sasori scowled as the armor opened back up to reveal a completely undamaged eye.

The Three Tails roared loudly, the sheer power behind the sound tearing up some of the closer branches. The giant turtle raised its head up and opened its mouth wide. Sasori's eyes widened at the sight of the demonic chakra so dark red it was almost black gathering in front of the monster's mouth. It congealed into the infamous Tailed Beast Ball and was quickly flying at Sasori. The famed puppeteer knew he couldn't stop an attack of that power, and decided instead to deflect the ball of concentrated death.

"**Iron Sand: Whirling Shield!**" Sasori allowed himself a small smile as the black dust gathered into a hollow cone facing him and began spinning. The previous name of the technique had been Desert Whirlpool, which made no sense to Sasori, as whirlpools weren't found in the desert under any circumstances. The Tailed Beast Ball, a perfectly sensible name for a ball of chakra produced by a Tailed Beast, was exactly as large as the diameter of the hollow cone and began to slow as it ground through the spinning sand. Just as Sasori sensed the spinning iron about to give way, he willingly collapsed the right side of the cone. The change in resistance sent the attack flying off to the right of Sasori, and it missed by a mile.

Sasori was glad it did too, seeing as it destroyed the section of shore it hit, dug a deep trench as it continued into the surrounding forest, then exploded violently. Sasori's puppets would have been decimated, and in fact, some of the Iron sand had been vaporized, rendering in unusable. The dust that used to be sand fell away from the edges of the cone as the shape inverted, point facing the Three Tails. The beast had apparently counted Sasori as dead the moment the Tailed Beast Ball had been launched, and was busy swiping Zetsu clones off of its shell with the one good tail it had left. Sasori decided to correct that mistake. No one, man, ninja, or even Tailed Beast disregarded Sasori of the Red Sand like that.

"**Iron Sand: Drill Shot!**" The inverted Whirling Shield shot at Three Tails' unsuspecting face. The chakra in the iron sand must have sparked some recognition with the Three Tails, and it turned to face the burst of chakra. The 'burst of chakra' turned out to be a massive drill made of poisoned iron dust that bore into the beast's one good eye. This understandably caused excruciating pain. Spread from both the tails and now the face, Sasori's poison began to kick in. Sasori would be surprised if it proved fatal to a Tailed Beast, but the powerful toxin coupled with the hundreds of White Zetsu clones draining chakra from the monster during the entire fight, and the Three Tails just couldn't stay up anymore.

The giant turtle collapsed in an armored heap onto the tree branches, and actually tore through them into the lake where it floated like a discarded twig. The white Zetsu clones that had avoided being crushed detached from the Three Tails' hide and leapt up onto the tree branches. The ones that had died were tossed into the lake by the surviving clones, and they quickly dissolved into a white mush. Sasori sealed his Kazekage puppet into its special scroll as Zetsu's two halves emerged from the wood beside him.

You never told me you could use the Wood Style." said Sasori as he unsealed his puppet armor Hiruko and entered it. When he next spoke, his voice had been artificially deepened. "It seems rather handy to be able to convert any battlefield to your advantage. Earth Style jutsu are one thing, but the First Hokage's jutsu is on an entirely different level."

"Yeah, you never said you could do that. Man, was I surprised!" said a White Zetsu, presumably the original, as he and his other half fused back together. "**Why? You make your clones with the Wood Style. And you've known I could use it offensively for years.** Oh yeah… I forgot."

Sasori rolled his eyes, secure in the knowledge that the action would not be translated through Hiruko. "Let's just get this Tailed Beast to the hideout. I'd hate to keep it waiting."

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"Hidan, get up. You're not fooling anyone." said Kakuzu calmly after the fire subsided.

"Oh come on Kakuzu." complained Hidan, pushing the giant cat paw off of himself. "I'd like to think I had the kitty confused."

"**Water Style: Contained Shockwave!**" A wonderful name if Kakuzu dared blow his own horn. A white mask with light blue markings on its cheeks emerged next to Kakuzu's head from under his Akatsuki cloak. The bird mask opened its beak and released a massive wave of water at the flaming cat. The Two Tails retaliated with a large fireball of its own, but the Contained Damage had the elemental advantage and blasted the cat off of Hidan with a loud hiss. It also blasted Hidan, but Kakuzu didn't really care.

"Kakuzu, the fuck! You hit me with that too!" shouted Hidan, who apparently did care.

"Like that even hurt you. Looks like it did hurt our opponent though." Sure enough, the Two Tails had swirls of steam rising off of its flame like body. It hissed at the two and leapt at them once more. Hidan jumped in front of the swat, blocking it with the blades of his scythe. As one would expect when trying to stand up to a twenty foot tall demon with a spiky metal pole, Hidan was pinned to the ground, only his head sticking out from under the paw. The three blades did their job though, and bit deeply into the cat's paw, causing it to hiss in pain.

The Two Tails turned its hiss into a snarl, and loosed a stream of flames onto Hidan's head. By the time the flames let up, even the rock surrounding Hidan was red hot. Satisfied with the charred corpse it had certainly created, the cat leapt forward at Kakuzu. The bounty hunter hardened his arm and delivered a powerful punch right onto the wound Hidan had created earlier. A jet of water from inside the sleeve of his cloak helped in making the beast recoil in pain.

Kakuzu looked past the cat to see Hidan stabbing himself and twirling his feet around like the idiot he was. It would appear that he had gotten enough blood to start the longest ritual known to man. Once it was complete though, Kakuzu knew all he had to do was stop Hidan from going too far and killing the jinchuriki. One drop of blood and it was all over. Kakuzu focused on the Two Tails, which had wisely put some distance between herself and Kakuzu.

The mangy beast raised its maw to the heavens and began charging chakra for its strongest attack. Kakuzu glared at the cat, but otherwise didn't move as it finished charging the Tiled Beast Ball. It was one of the strongest attacks in the world, but Kakuzu's nemesis had survived it, reportedly countless times, and Kakuzu would not lose to a man long dead. Besides, Hidan appeared to have finished up.

The Two Tails brought its face forward to launch the Tailed Beast Ball at Kakuzu when it's right front leg collapsed. The sudden loss of balance threw off the beast's aim, and the Tailed Beast Ball went flying past Kakuzu close enough to move his Akatsuki cloak. It took a large circular chunk out of the mountain behind him and continued on a while before exploding harmlessly in midair. Kakuzu spared Hidan a glance, only to see him laughing maniacally with a black spike impaling his right arm. Under his mask, Kakuzu smiled. It seemed that this fight wouldn't be lasting much longer.

The Two Tails fell to the ground helplessly and shrieked in pain as Hidan ripped the spike out of his right arm and violently stabbed it into his left arm. Kakuzu decided to speed up the progress and sent another wave of water at the fire cat. When the torrent abated, Kakuzu looked on at the blonde jinchuriki from earlier. The only difference being the fact that she was soaking wet and had her hair unbound. The woman seemed genuinely shocked to not be a giant demon standing over the corpses of her enemies, as she had so many times in the past.

Kakuzu looked over to Hidan and nodded, a subtle reminder to not target any vital areas, only a leg or two. Hidan raised the spike high above his head and melodramatically brought it down into his thigh. The blonde woman did not however, collapse and scream in pain as they had both expected. Kakuzu was the first to realize what had happened, and took it upon himself to explain the strange phenomenon to Hidan, lest they be there all day.

"You have the blood of the Two Tails. This is the jinchuriki. Your ritual is now useless unless you can get the girl's blood." stated Hidan calmly. The jinchuriki had gotten over her opponent's self-mutilation and grown her fingernails to dagger-like lengths with n audible gleam.

"Bullshit! What's the damn difference?" shouted Hidan. Regardless of his whining, the silver haired Akatsuki member ran at the jinchuriki slashing like a madman with his scythe. The blades were all blocked by the long claws the jinchuriki had grown, but Hidan would not be rebuffed that easily. He continued swinging wildly, not giving Yugito a moment's rest. She was so focused on not giving any of her blood to the creep that she missed the black shadow that appeared behind him for a split second before attacking.

"**Wind Style: Pressure Damage!**" Kakuzu declared the name of his attack for his thread creature, since the monster didn't have vocal chords of his own. He could have remained silent, but Kakuzu prided himself on his naming skill, and took every feasible opportunity to declare a new one. The blunt wind smashed into Hidan and Yugito. They were both sent flying, but just like before, Hidan was absolutely fine. He even managed to use the blunt wind as a propellant for his own attack.

Yugito landed painfully against one of the semi-standing concrete walls of the building. The impact became even more painful when Hidan landed on top of her. His knees broke several ribs prompting Yugito to cough blood onto Hidan's face, and his black spike drove itself through her hands and into the wall. Hidan gave into gravity and fell to the ground, but Yugito remained pinned to the wall, hanging by her hands. Hidan drew another ritual circle as quickly as he could, and it was a testament to his familiarity with the circumscribed triangle that he managed it with almost no deviation from the perfect lines of the symbol of Jashin.

He licked a bit of the blood off of his face, and his skin took on a deep black hue. White markings appeared as well in shapes reminiscent of a stylized skeleton atop the pitch black skin. He removed another spike from his tattered and bloodstained Akatsuki cloak and snapped it into its fullest length. Raising his face to the sky, Hidan began praying extremely loudly.

"Lord Jashin, accept this pittance of pain and suffering, doubled for you glory, as recompense for my transgressions against the commandments of your ways! For today I leave this woman alive for the future goals of your divine mission. The postponement of her death will be repaid by a painful and long death later to appease your great wishes. Please accept the apologies of your most faithful follower and continue to grant your blessings to me that I may keep the commandments and way of Jashin. AMEN!" With that, Hidan drove the spike through his abdomen, purposely missing every vital organ.

Yugito gave one excruciating scream that seemed to last forever as her blood practically exploded over the wall she was still pinned to. The scream died down to a pitiful whimper before she finally lost consciousness and stopped struggling against the spike that ran through her palms to keep her in place. Kakuzu looked around at the scene, the complete devastation of the surrounding area, the fires that still raged, and the blood that coated almost everything. Any child passing by would have been scarred for life.

Kakuzu's gaze finally settled on his partner, who was laying flat on his back as if dead, an image helped by the black metal spike protruding from his stomach. He was mumbling what appeared to be more prayers. Kakuzu had lived for a long time, and had acquired a good deal of patience and respect for religions, even if they all worshiped the wrong thing. He decided to give Hidan some time to finish his stupid ritual to his ridiculous god, but he got fed up after about thirty minutes. It was clear Hidan had no intentions of stopping anytime soon, and the jinchuriki was bleeding out while whimpering in pain, having long since regained consciousness.

"Hidan, it's already been thirty minutes. Aren't you done yet?" asked Kakuzu.

"Shut up! Don't interfere with the ritual!" yelled Hidan, sitting up slightly as the markings faded from his skin. "It's bad enough I don't get to kill her now as per the commandments, so the ritual is extra important this time around. It's a pain for me too, you know! Ouch…" Hidan mumbled the last part as he pulled the weapon out of his stomach.

Kakuzu's witty retort was cut off by the voice of god himself speaking into their minds. "_We have another one._" The two turned to each other and nodded. Kakuzu was the one to send the message to the leader of Akatsuki, claiming the capture of another Tailed Beast. The usual alert rang through the minds of all members of Akatsuki, before a more privatized message came directed at Hidan and Kakuzu. "_Zetsu will be along to collect your jinchuriki and bring it to the sealing location. Guard it until then.__**" **_

Hidan looked up at Kakuzu expectantly. Kakuzu sighed and reached into his Akatsuki cloak. He pulled out a bundle of black cloth with red clouds and tossed it to Hidan, who quickly changed cloaks into one that wasn't tattered, burnt, and coated in blood. Yet.

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**A/N: Eleventh chapter up! Wooo! The relatively quick fight at the end of this chapter goes to show you what happens when two combat specialists of Akatsuki tag team a jinchuriki. Sasori and Zetsu only had so much trouble because neither of them is really equipped to handle a Tailed Beast at max power. If Itachi and Kisame had fought together, Roshi would have gone down equally as fast. Question time. Naruto isn't suicidal by joining Akatsuki. He simply had no real bonds to anyone but the toads, and when if you had to choose between having Pain as your ally or you enemy, it's kind of a no-brainer. In combat, he isn't suicidal, just a tad cocky, and rightfully so. His choices are based around his own survival first and foremost. He's made it this long in Akatsuki without anyone wising up to his secret, and he has no real reason to suspect anyone will be finding out anytime soon. That out of the way, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and reviews are always appreciated. See ya!**


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